democracyforcalifornia.com

Voter Intimidation By Right Wing Businessmen

There is bad news and there is good news.

First the bad news (bad because this shouldn't even be happening in America):

Lynne Gobbell of Moulton, Alabama, was fired from her job on Sept. 9 at Enviromate, for driving to work with a Kerry-Edwards bumper sticker in the rear windshield of her Chevy Lumina. The person who did the firing was Phil Geddes, who owns the company and is an enthusiastic Bush supporter. (Although Gobbell hasn't done any proselytizing for Kerry at Enviromate, Geddes distributed a flyer to all Enviromate employees explaining why they should vote for Bush.) Here is how Gobbell related her story to Clyde Stancil of the Decatur Daily News:

Woman Fired For sporting Kerry Sticker on Her Car "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 [Geddes'] 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 [Geddes] 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.

Now for the good news (The Mighty Blogosphere strikes again!)

A Kerry fan gets fired, and then hired, for her politics

The story was picked up by Daily Kos, a political Web log, and spread quickly around the Web. By this morning, Geddes, who has declined to comment publicly on the matter, had apparently had enough of the bad publicity. Through an intermediary, he offered Gobbell an apology and said she could have her old job back. But Gobbell said she wouldn't return without some written guarantee that Geddes wouldn't turn around and fire her once he was out of the spotlight. Then, late this afternoon, Kerry himself phoned Gobbell. "He was telling me how proud he was that I stood up," Gobbell told me. "He'd read the part where Phil said I could either work for him or work for John Kerry. He said, 'you let him know you're working for me as of today.' I was just so shocked."

Gobbell accepted Kerry's job offer, "so I reckon I'll be working for John Kerry." Kerry left it that someone from his campaign would call Gobbell to work out the details. Let's hope there's quick follow-through (I'll be checking!), because Gobbell told me she couldn't wait to tell Geddes that she had a better offer.

Although there's an excellent chance the Kerry campaign will flog (or perhaps already has flogged) this story in the press, I should emphasize that it did not tip me to Gobbell's story. By sheer coincidence, I happened to call Gobbell while she was on the line with Kerry, and got a busy signal. When I called back a few minutes later, Gobbell explained who she'd just been speaking with. In a political campaign, I should note, it's entirely appropriate to hire somebody based on that person's politics.

That's certainly a happy outcome. Thumbs up to John Kerry and Lynne Gobbell!

More good news just in: Lynn could also receive financial help from the blogosphere. americablog.org, which began raising money for Gobbell on Monday night after learning of her dismissal, collected $2,240 in a 24-hour period.

Now that's what I call community support!

But what about the legal aspect of this story and how other workers could be affected should the same happen to them? The Slate.com article may have erroneously stated that there are no laws against firing employees on political grounds. If the post I found on the DFA board is accurate, Alabama apparantly does have a law on the books, and I would think other states do also, protecting one of our most important Constitutional rights -- i.e., the right to freely hold and express political views and vote on conscience, without intimidation or harrassment of any kind.

Alabama Code Section 17-23-10 Employer intimidating employee.

Any employer who attempts by coercion, intimidation, threats to discharge or to lessen the remuneration of an employee, to influence his vote in any election, or who requires or demands an examination or inspection by himself or another of an employee's ballot, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be fined not less than $500.00.

Another firing by a right wing boss. Is this how the far right plans to rig the election? For shame.

Discussion on the DFA board

Posted by Diana at September 15, 2004 09:35 AM