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Women loses job for having Kerry bumper sticker


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Moulton woman says she lost job for sporting Kerry sticker on car

 

By Clyde L. Stancil

DAILY Staff Writer

[email protected] ? 340-2443

 

MOULTON ? Lynne Gobbell never imagined the cost of a John Kerry-John Edwards bumper sticker could run so high.

 

Gobbell of Moulton didn't pay a cent for the sticker that she proudly displays on the rear windshield of her Chevrolet Lumina, but said it cost her job at a local factory after it angered her boss, Phil Gaddis.

 

Gaddis, a Decatur bankruptcy attorney, owns Enviromate, a cellulose insulation company in Moulton.

 

Gaddis did not return phone calls from THE DAILY about the alleged Thursday firing.

 

Gobbell said she consulted a lawyer, but then changed her mind about going to see him. She said she has cried about the incident and must do without income for three weeks while the state unemployment commission decides if she is eligible for compensation.

 

Gobbell said she was averaging 50 to 60 hours a week on the plant's bagging machine.

 

"The lady there (at the unemployment commission) said that she has never heard of a firing like this before," Gobbell said.

 

Gobbell gave this account:

 

"We were going back to work from break, and my manager told me that Phil said to remove the sticker off my car or I was fired," she said. "I told him that Phil couldn't tell me who to vote for. He said, 'Go tell him.' "

 

She went to Gaddis' office, knocked on the door and entered on his orders.

 

"Phil and another man who works there were there," she said. "I asked him if he said to remove the sticker and he said, 'Yes, I did.' I told him he couldn't tell me who to vote for. When I told him that, he told me, 'I own this place.' I told him he still couldn't tell me who to vote for."

 

Gobbell said Gaddis told her to "get out of here."

 

"I asked him if I was fired and he told me he was thinking about it," she said. "I said, 'Well, am I fired?' He hollered and said, 'Get out of here and shut the door.' "

 

She said her manager was standing in another room and she asked him if that meant for her to go back to work or go home. The manager told her to go back to work, but he came back a few minutes later and said, " 'I reckon you're fired. You could either work for him or John Kerry,' " Gobbell said.

 

"I took off my gloves and threw them in the garbage and left," Gobbell said.

 

Though she is unemployed and uncertain if she will get her job back, Gobbell said, she doesn't regret her decision to keep the sticker on her windshield.

 

"I would like to find another job, but I would take that job back because I need to work," she said. "It upset me and made me mad that he could put a letter in my check expressing his (political) opinion, but I can't put something on my car expressing mine."

 

She was referring to a flier that she said Gaddis placed in employee envelopes to remind them of the positive impact that President Bush's policies have had on them. An employee at the plant who would not identify himself confirmed the contents of the letter.

 

Gobbell provided a copy of the flier. It says:

 

"Just so you will know, because of the Bush tax (cut):

 

I was able to buy the new Hammer Mill

I was able to finance our receivables

I was able to get the new CAT skid steer

I was able to get the wire cutter

I was able to give you a job"

It further says:

 

"You got the benefit of the Bush tax cut. Everyone did."

 

 

:banghead :banghead

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Guest Moneyball

I'm sure there was some other reason.

 

But if there wasn't, this is unacceptable. It's a f***ing bumper sticker, she's not standing up on her desk and crying out how much she hates bush to all her coworkers.

 

This still isn't as common as the hardships for conservatism students in the university system.

557683[/snapback]

 

 

agree 100 %

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Assuming the story is true, this is unacceptable. I wish a conservative would have posted this topic though, so people can see that regardless of political leaning, this happens to both sides and is totally unacceptable. Happens to conservatives very often in universities and happens to liberals as well in situations like this. Instead of being seen as a republican bashing article, which many are seeing it as, it needs to be seen as a freedom of speech is violated often in this coutnry and these abuses need to seize. Could this lady be lying? Of course, but thats not relevant to the political discussion at hand

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I agree, never heard of this before. Isn't it illegal?

563842[/snapback]

http://slate.msn.com/id/2106714

Firing a person because you don't like his or her politics runs contrary to just about everything this country stands for, but it is not against the law.

563935[/snapback]

I meant according to the CBA that her union had if she was part of a union.

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