Rally walk out
karenmc
63 Posts
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?
Comments
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.
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.
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
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
This is a timely and fascinating thread.
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]
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?
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.?
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.
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
Anne in Ohio
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.
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.
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
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!!