Rally walk out

karenmc

We had 11 employees (3 perm, 8 temp) walk out yesterday at the start of their shift saying it was in support of immigration reform. On Sunday there was a rally in which organizers encouraged employees to walk off their jobs to "show management" how important minorities were to the workforce. Needless to say we termed the perms for job abandonment and immediately replaced them. We ended assignment for the temps and are in the process of replacing. What surprised me was that this took place in our Idaho office (no one in our Texas offices left work.) Are any of you having to deal with issues related to these rallies?

MB1004

We had 6 employees who were going to walk out and leave early to attend the rally if they didn't get permission to go. They would work up until 1 hour before. We chose to let them go...morale, etc. I wonder though, if we would have termed them had they left early. If I had an ee tell me at the beginning of his shift that he was leaving, would be back tomorrow, but had to go today and didn't want to specify why...I'd probably tell him it was his choice, but his absences would be subject to our attendance policy....which wouldn't necessarily mean termination.

karenmc

These employees were very upfront about why they were leaving and encouraged other employees to walk out with them.

Irie

We had no one leave to attend a rally however, had they done so they would have been subject to our attendance policy and received points for leaving. We would not have considered that an excused absence.

POTATO

We anticipate our rally walk-out to be Thursday (my employees are TERRIBLE about keeping secrets). I opened the dialogue with them expressing my understanding of them wanting to express their opinion - after all isn't that one of the reasons everyone wants to come to America? HOWEVER in my opinion part of being or wanting to become an American is having LOYALTY, specifically in this situtation for the employer/employee relationship. What I expected was to be kept informed and to work together through this. While I appreciate the thought that the rally's are suppose to be a "suprise" and to catch us off guard so the impact of having less employees is more jarring but frankly having to stop production and losing revenue is jarring enough. I expressed to them that if they choose to march, which again is their right, walking out on your job isn't a right and our production line will have to stop BUT orders MUST be fulfilled so that means working longer hours for the rest of the week or Saturday. While we DO NOT excuse this absence and it will go towards our attendance policy, if the employee is within the acceptable range of absences, they won't lose their jobs.

I felt compelled to send this email because I question your motives for terminating your employees. First-is this how you handle ALL employees who have an unexcused absence? I hope you are being consistant with your absence/termination policy. Second-I assume your perms. were good employees, why would you want to lose knowledgable employees only to replace and train with new employees who too may walk-out on you May 1st or at some other time for some other reason or just flat out not be as good at their jobs as those you replaced? Good luck and be prepared - I believe these rally's have only just begun.

karenmc

I've used the completely wrong terminology in my original post. These employees were not terminated, they vacated their job and because of pressing deadlines we filled those vacancies. I wish as you were able to do that we had had a chance to speak with them before they walked out.

SMace

You have certainbly done a good job wordsmithing what was done, but as far as I'm concerned if they do not have a job when they come in tomorrow they were terminated.

If you have not filled the vacancies of everyone else that has left work in the past, you may have some difficulties.

Lawyers are going to be chomping at the bit to get the cases where overzealous employers have fired these "poor" hispanics.

karenmc

I know. I wish more thought had been given this before action was taken but it is what it is at this point. Actually our corp attorney was involved in this from the beginning and they were not all hispanics that walked out. I'm in the process of planning a course of action for the anticipated walk out on May 1st with hopefully a totally different outcome.

HRCalico

Hey, Potato, welcome to the forum! Great ID, and great first post. Hope to hear more from you in the future.

pork1

Yesterday was Monday, are you open for business on Sunday? NLRB might also be interested in your actions, employees have a right to organize and express their opinion without penalty from the employer; however, more importantly is the actions of the employer pertaining to these activities, HAS THE COMPANY NOW SHOWN ITS TRUE COLORS AND REVEALED TO THE EMPLOYEES THAT they must be organized to protect their rights? Your actions might have or might just cause the UNION folks to head your way.

Good luck! We had none go to a rally, maybe our work sites are so far back in the sticks that our foreign nationals did not hear about the rallys.

PORK

karenmc

Pork, I get where you're going with the post but let's look at it from the employers point of view. The employees did not attempt to organize on the company premises, and they were certainly not discouraged from expressing their opinion. They walked out, the company had a deadline to meet and so other people were put in those positions to get the job done. What if they had walked out in protest of the war, or the fact they can't smoke in movie theaters, or there should be a port a potty or every corner? Does the employer just shut down, putting every employees job at risk until the protestors feel like coming back to work?

pork1

KARENMC:
My post on the thread was ment only for an alert. Defending the companies' actions are easy, if they were planned out and had all of the facts. It is the employee that feels "not appreciated or abused" in all that they do for the company from their "point of view". This causes the employee to become employees on the trail to a union. Fighting that battle is no fun at all and after looking back over the facts after the union drive has been defeated, we employers often come to the realization that "we could have done things differently and we would not have spent all this money to defend a union drive"! I have been there and it cost me my job. The HR was the "excape goat" for causing the employer to go a stray from the company theme of "caring for the employee/we listen", BS. We did not listen and we did not care before the drive took place. Our words were louder than our actions! I could not convence our management team that our policies and actions were not working! we needed change before the fact and not after. My demize was the only difference during the drive and after the drive.

So be careful of crossing the potential union drive issues. These rallies have convenced our congress to re-visit the Felony aspects. Organizing for combat bad policy or procedures are good, but the company should always listen and act on behalf of the employee, to prevent a "union drive"!

PORK

karenmc

Thanks Pork. Our employees are respected and appreciated and are shown that by our actions and words. Supervisors and managers are encouraged to praise and commend good performers and do so on a daily basis. My problem is the distance with this sattelite office. While I have an assistant there with a good head on her shoulders, I think the whole management team was blind sided by this incident. I am headed up there and will be holding training classes (wish they had a video for common sense.)

HRinGA

In Augusta, GA a lot of the Hispanic contractors walked off jobs yesterday. My spouse works in the construction industry and all the contractors were calling each other to find out if their crew had left as well. They were all blind-sided and not very happy. They made their point by leaving, but to the wrong people. Now everyone's mad.

Paul in Cannon Beach

It feels like we are in a bubble here out on the coast. No walkouts but I know there were large demonstrations yesterday in Portland and so those people had to come from somewhere.

This is a timely and fascinating thread.

SMace

You are exactly right. They wanted to show the businesses how important they are to them. THe problem is those businesses already know how important they are.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Have you heard of this:

Organisers of the planned May 1 “A day without Latinos or a day without immigrants” boycott will ask immigrants to put down tools, leave their places of work and classrooms, shut their business and take to the streets en masse to protest a bill that would criminalise illegal immigration.

A friend of mine who is Latino just sent it to me along with this web link:

[url]http://polizeros.com/2006/04/01/may-1-day-without-latinos/[/url]

karenmc

In one of my earlier posts I mentioned the May 1 walk out and that we are preparing early for it.

CathyMac

Our community is a minority majority -- Hispanic 53%; Asian about 4% -- and we only had 3 employees absent on Monday. All 3 took leave as appropriate to their positions. We have a very lenient leave policy.

I am left wondering ... what if all Employers walked out one day? Where would all the ee's go? There would be no work or pay that day. They would probably be jolted..... just a thought.

Our economy would suffer greatly without our immigrant (documented and otherwise) community; however, their world would suffer greatly without us too. No?

HRinGA

Yes, their walk out affected so many. They came back bright and early the next day. He was none too happy, and simply asked they notify him next time. I then told him that kinda defeats the purpose. The walk out was supposed to have an effect (or affect? I can never remember). I'll have to give him a heads-up for May 1st.

I must admit I'm a little fuzzy on the details. Are they protesting b/c it would be a felony now to cross the border illegally? And also they would be denied healthcare, etc.?

Paul in Cannon Beach

Does anybody have a read on how unions feel about this issue?

My guess is they must be torn. They probably support the idea of any group working in concert for mutual aid and protection but I am also sure they recognize that a worker program would erode some of their leverage.

POTATO

I hope I'm not spreading gossip but I "think" I remember hearing or reading that a union organization paid for some insurance a city required before an immigation rally took place. I really believed this happened because I remember thinking...on no...because for our industry, at least in the past, unions have tried to organize but the workers were uninterested and because their wage rates were relatively low they didn't want to or couldn't afford to donate money to a "cause". But with these rallies taking place and unions possibily funding parts, I am really fearful that an attempt may again happen. Also FYI, May 1st is a reality - but I'm just not sure what reality will be exploited. I have been told the latino community will: all walk out for a day OR not buy ANYTHING for a day or both BUT there are fairly concrete plans for SOMETHING?!?!? Again as I mentioned before, I have employees who can't keep secrets (thank heavens). PS I LOVE this forum, its nice to have KNOWLEDGEABLE people to turn to when help is needed or you just want to gripe!!!

karenmc

Since my original post, our Idaho office has received calls of support from individuals and places we do business with. If any of our current employees would like to march in the May 1 rally all we are going to ask is that they notify us in advance that they will be taking PTO for that day. I've heard nothing about union participation or sponsorship. Potato, do you remember which state the city was in?

POTATO

Unfortunately no...it was something in passing that NOW I wished I had REALLY paid more attention to!!

Wildsporty

We have had one business that I know of and possibly two others dismiss all the employees that walked out. I am in Nampa, Idaho.

we have a policy that is for all white, brown, red, black whatever. If you walk off the job without getting permission and telling anyone it is considered a quit. You have at that point quit your job. When you come back you will not have a job.

If you come in and arrange the day off than we will apply it toward your PTO or you can arrange a day off without pay. If there are several employees and they come in and talk to me about it we could work something out like maybe a day off without pay and we would cover their shifts with temps for the day.

It does not matter what reason it is for, it is the policy of the company. If I walk off the job and do not tell anyone I will expect to not have a job when I return.

I do not think it is showing an employer how valuable you are if you put the employer in jeopardy of possibly losing revenue because of your action when that revenue pays your salary. That is biting the hand that feeds you. It makes you much more valuable to compromise with the employer, show your loyalty and show him what a good employee you are that although you wish to join in and express your opinion you also recognize the importance that your job carries and you are also willing to address that issue and take responsibility for it in some way.

If you wish to live in our country and if you wish to be a citizen and work here than you also should assume the same responsibilities as the American Citizens do. We are all responsible for our actions. Walking off the job and putting your employer in a bind is not a responsible action and does not show good citizenship nor does it show a willingness to be the perfect employee and offer a valuable service to the employer. What it does is causes hard feelings and even more discrimination and also makes it hard for others that do not walk off the job as employer may be reluctent to hire them for fear they will.

Sorry for the lengthy discussion, but what if right for one is right for all. What if all christians that have to work today on Good Friday walked off the job and protested working on Good Friday?

Shirley in Idaho

AnneHa

Wildsporty, I agree with you all the way. Caving into this sort of behavior soon has the inmates running the asylum and the powers that be ready for one. In these cases I always remind myself - we have the RIGHT to manage our employees, not the other way around.

Anne in Ohio

HRQ

Wow, this was interesting reading.

The Phoenix march involved around 100,000 people.

We are a childcare company and fortunately only one of our locations suffered. The location has a staff of about 18, including management. The day of the march, one teacher failed to return from break and the other simply no showed. The supervisor saw the "no show employee" on TV at the march.

We gave each a final written warning for violating the attendance policy. Their actions also left their classrooms in violation of state-required teacher/child ratio.

Several other staff members wanted to participate in the march but knew it wouldn't be fair to their co-workers or to the children if they didn't come in, and didn't want to even ask for the day off since they knew we (and the children) needed them at work.

Paul in Cannon Beach

So are these walkouts making you value the contribution of Latino workers or just making you mad?

HRQ

Mad. (Sorry that wasn't clear...) It also made us value even more the contribution of those, latino or otherwise, who managed to come to work, AND stayed late, even though they wanted to participate in the march.

Parents had difficulty even getting to the school to pick up their children because of the human traffic on the streets, so several of our staff worked late to make sure the kids were taken care of.

Wildsporty

I agree. Those Latinos that stayed and worked even though they wanted to participate are loyal workers and they are valued by the company.

It is a good employee that comes to work every day. It is a loyal employee that comes to work when their friends and neighbors are putting pressure on them not to.

Yes they are valued..

The ones that marched out without notice only shows that they care only for their cause and not the company they work for.

I only have 3 hispanic employees, they all came to work and I gave tham all AIM BUCKS and a big thanks for being there. I told each one of the 3 how much they are appreciated.

Shirley

POTATO

Just to update my earlier post - our immigration rally was 4/13 - I tried to be a little "sneaky" and held an employees appreciation brunch during our first break - which coincided with the rally start time (I posted this event two days prior to the rally). We gave away $25 gift certficates to the local supermarket.

My reason to do this was to let those "latinos" who stayed and worked and the rest of my employees that had to pick up the slack for the absent employees, that we appreciated their efforts (and hopefully to sway some that were on the fence, to stay and work and it seems food sometime is a good pursuader).

But a sad sidenote to this issue, I had employees who were REALLY pressured to attend this rally by fellow employees, family members and others in their community and frankly most really didn't understand the reason for the march or were grossly misinformed. I had to declare our building a "rally free" zone! If they wanted to organize or discuss the issues, it needed to be off our property. I felt sorry for some who wanted so badly to be loyal to us but couldn't withstand the great pressures they received from their peers - in fact most would rather lose their job than "stand-up" to a cultural peer.

The deal I struck with those who marched was that they would be unexcused for 1/2 the day and would be required to return to work after the rally was over which was lunch time or be terminated. We absolutely chose NOT to shut-down our facility because that would really give the rally credibility and by attending the rally the employee missed out on wages, good food, a chance to win and had to expose themselves to an unexcused absence or possible termination. The good news for us, if you can call having 12 employees gone for 1/2 a day, was that they all returned and we had a yummy brunch!!