{"id":3274,"date":"2013-05-05T10:07:48","date_gmt":"2013-05-05T14:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=3274"},"modified":"2013-05-05T10:17:53","modified_gmt":"2013-05-05T14:17:53","slug":"if-wal-mart-fires-for-not-following-procedures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/if-wal-mart-fires-for-not-following-procedures.html","title":{"rendered":"If Wal-Mart fires for not following procedures…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nGeorge Rhynes asks if Wal-Mart can fire employees who disarmed\r\nan armed robber for not following procedures,\r\nwhy can’t the manager he says didn’t follow procedures when\r\nthe manager fired him be fired in return?\r\nI wonder why Wal-Mart procedures and profit are more important\r\nthan employee safety, well-being, or the drain on public resources\r\nto cover what Wal-Mart does not?\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nGeorge Boston Rhynes wrote to Wal-Mart CEO and President Mike Duke and Board of Directors 20 February 2011,\r\n\r\nWal-Mart Store 899 and 2615, Valdosta, Georgia and China Workers!<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\nAfter nearly three years of being ignored by Wal-Mart Store Inc. I\r\nappeal to you once more; to take this opportunity to review,\r\nconsider and investigate my three year old “wrongful\r\ntermination” from Wal-Mart Store #2615 in Valdosta, Georgia.\r\nThis is where Mr. Hal Harwell, Store Manager terminated me unfairly\r\nunder the heading of “Inability to Perform Job” on March\r\n2008.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nIf the EMPLOYEES were fired in Layton, Utah for DISOBEYING\r\nWal-Mart’s Policy and they were. Then Store Manager Hal Harwell\r\nshould also be FIRED for disobeying company policy. Store Manager\r\nHal disobeyed company’s policies, guidelines, and procedures by\r\ndenying me “GEORGE BOSTON RHYNES” equal rights as all\r\nother employees when it comes to being entered into Wal-Mart’s Four\r\nWeeks Training Program as hundreds of other Department 9, Sporting\r\nGoods Department Managers employed at Wal-Mart throughout the\r\nnation. {TITLE VII OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964, AND CIVIL RIGHTS\r\nACT OF 1991.}\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nI had a little trouble finding the case George is referring to,\r\nbecause google turns up so many cases of Wal-Mart employees being\r\nfired for not following procedures, such as\r\n\r\nWalmart Greeter Fired After She ‘Grabbed’ Customer<\/a>\r\n(by Susanna Kim for abc News 9 July 2012)\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nA 73-year-old former Walmart greeter in St. Petersburg, Fla., says\r\nshe’s been in a downward spiral and has had to sell her house after\r\nshe was fired for grabbing an unruly customer on Black Friday last\r\nyear.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“Walmart was my family. I didn’t have no family other than\r\nthem,” [Janice] Sullivan told ABC Tampa affiliate WFTS’s reporter\r\nKimberly Kuizon….\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“I grabbed her to keep me from falling. That’s why I grabbed\r\nher,” she said.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nOr this one, about an employee who ate on the job because she ouldn’t afford food on what they were paying her:\r\n\r\nWalmart Hits Oreo-Loving Worker With Felony Charge:\r\n63-year-old fired, accused of theft<\/a>\r\n(by Neal Colgrass for Newser 22 February 2013)\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\nWalmart is slapping a former employee with felony charges after she\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nallegedly ate the store’s Oreo cookies on the job, The Smoking Gun\r\nreports. Penny Winters, 63, admits to munching on Oreos at the\r\nIndiana store but says she noticed an open bag and considered them a\r\ngift from management. Surveillance footage, however, showed “Ms.\r\nWinters select the package of cookies, open it, and proceed to\r\nconsume multiple cookies during her work shift,” according to a\r\npolice report.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe report added that Winters admitted to stealing and eating other\r\njunk food, and said she “simply did not have the monies to\r\nlegitimately purchase the food items.” So Walmart had her arrested,\r\ncharged with felony theft, and fired her from the $11.40-per-hour\r\nmaintenance job. She posted bond and was released from jail earlier\r\nthis week.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nOK, maybe she stole some cookies, but felony charges after firing her already?\r\nThat seems a bit harsh.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nBut this seems to be the Utah gun-grabbing story George referred to;\r\n\r\n4 Layton Walmart employees fired after disarming gunman caught shoplifting<\/a>,\r\n(by Andrew Adams for Deseret News 9 February 2011)\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\nThe shoplifter smashed Gabriel Stewart up against a wall.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nIt didn’t take him long to realize that pressure against his lower\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nback was from a loaded gun held by a desperate man who didn’t want\r\nto go to jail. The gunman had a firm grip on Stewart’s shoulder,\r\ntelling him and three of his Walmart co-workers, “Don’t make me do\r\nthis.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“Absolutely time stopped,” Stewart told KSL. “I\r\ndidn’t know what to do.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nInstantly, Shawn Ray and Justin Richins kicked into gear, spinning\r\nthe gunman around. Lori Poulsen ripped the gun away and secured it.\r\nThey all held on to the man until police arrived minutes later.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe four Layton Walmart employees felt it was mission accomplished.\r\nPolice officers told them they had done everything right.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nBut a week later, all four were fired from their jobs. Walmart said\r\ntheir actions had violated company policy and put their fellow\r\nworkers and shoppers at risk.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nSo apparently Walmart’s rules are more important than self-protection\r\nof their own employees, such as Janice Sullivan or the Utah four.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe Utah armed robber also turned out to be in illegal possession\r\nof the weapon:\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\nLongton pleaded guilty to two charges Monday — robbery, a\r\nsecond-degree felony, and the purchase, transfer, possession or use\r\nof a dangerous weapon by a restricted person, a class A misdemeanor.\r\nIn exchange for his plea, three other charges were dismissed,\r\nincluding threatening or using a dangerous weapon in a fight or\r\nquarrel. Longton is scheduled to be sentenced on March 28.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe four workers were full-time employees. Stewart had been with the\r\ncompany for more than 12 years. Poulsen, who was employed for more\r\nthan seven years, had made Walmart a career. Ray said his dismissal\r\nkept him from purchasing a home.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“I honestly felt worse than when I had the gun to my\r\nback,” Stewart said. “I honestly felt betrayed.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nApparently George also feels betrayed for being fired.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nSo why does Walmart do these things?\r\nThe Deseret News story concludes:\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\n“I’m surprised they would be fired — they’re defending\r\ntheir lives,” said David Lundberg, who was a police officer\r\nfor 21 years, has additional security experience and now runs\r\nUtahdetective.com.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nLundberg believes concern over liability drives these policies.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“People slip and fall, get head injuries, that kind of\r\nstuff,” Lundberg said. “So that’s what stores are\r\nworried about is the liability — getting sued.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nWell, it would be horrible to let employees doing the right thing\r\nget in the way of corporate profits, I suppose.\r\nOr to let paying employees enough so they could afford food\r\nget in the way.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nOne of these stories has a happy continuation, but it’s not\r\nbecause of anything Walmart did to make that happen.\r\n\r\nFired Walmart Greeter Gets More Help Than She Ever Imagined<\/a>\r\n(Posted 12 July 2012 in Black Friday)\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\nAfter she was denied unemployment benefits due to the nature of her\r\ntermination, she fell into debt and was forced to sell her home. Now\r\nstruggling to get by daily, her story was chronicled by the\r\n\r\nTampa Bay Times<\/a>\r\nin a moving article that inspired many to help. One such\r\nperson, a former neighbor of Sullivan, began an\r\n\r\nIndiegogo.com page<\/a>\r\nfor her, urging others to help her raise money for the now debt\r\nstricken senior citizen. That page has now raised $2,500 as of this\r\nmorning [finally $3,350],\r\nwith a goal of $5000. But, that’s not the only Indiegogo\r\npage dedicated to Sullivan. It’s actually one of three, with\r\n\r\nanother raising $170<\/a>\r\nand originating in Texas and one that has yet to make\r\nmoney, originating in Tennessee.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nSullivan, who doesn’t own a computer, said she never expected the\r\noutpouring of support, according to the\r\n\r\nTampa Bay Times<\/a>. Besides the\r\nfundraising on the web, others have offered checks, cash, housing,\r\nand even the simple gift of friendship.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n“She just keeps saying, ‘I can’t believe how many people\r\ncare about me.’” said Amy Wetherbee, the neighbor who began\r\nfundraising for Sullivan.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nIt’s good her neighbors next door and all over the Internet care,\r\ngiven her ex-employer doesn’t seem to.\r\nHow would she afford to own a computer, even when she worked for Walmart?\r\nWal-Mart\r\n\r\npays so little its employees often have to rely on food stamps\r\nand public medical assistance such as emergency rooms<\/a>\r\nbecause they can’t afford enough food or medical insurance.\r\nThis is the same Walmart whose founding family helped\r\nbuy a Georgia election, selling off\r\npart of<\/a> our public education to\r\n\r\nprivate<\/a>\r\nprofiteers<\/a>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nGeorge has been\r\n\r\ntelling stories of Wal-Mart managers<\/a> for\r\n\r\n\r\nyears now<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n“First off, you have to know what your job is.”\r\n—Charles Judge \r\n<\/blockquote>\r\nMaybe he and the rest of us will get justice for Wal-Mart’s actions.\r\nMaybe Georgia will even, as he recommends, reconsider its\r\n“at-will” work laws<\/a>.\r\nMaybe if enough of the people of Georgia demand these things.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Rhynes asks if Wal-Mart can fire employees who disarmed an armed robber for not following procedures, why can’t the manager he says didn’t follow procedures when the manager fired him be fired in return? I wonder why Wal-Mart procedures and profit are more important than employee safety, well-being, or the drain on public resources […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,731,48,40,2,41,19,20],"tags":[8736,8797,8720,8717,1139,8701,8699,8702,8710,12,7,3629,3875,2725,3876,3623,2580,6,1387,3874],"class_list":["post-3274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-bostongbr","category-code-enforcement","category-community","category-government","category-health-care","category-history","category-law","tag-activism","tag-bostongbr","tag-code-enforcement","tag-community","tag-employment","tag-georgia","tag-government","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-management","tag-military-training","tag-right-to-work","tag-supervisor","tag-termination","tag-training","tag-valdosta","tag-wal-mart","tag-worker-rights"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-QO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3274"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3281,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3274\/revisions\/3281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}