Support pours in for fired E. Greenbush Walmart employee who redeemed $5.10 of cans

[GMDino]

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Walmart-fires-East-Greenbush-employee-for-6642073.php?cmpid=fbsocialflow

Quote:East Greenbush, N.Y.
A Times Union story about a Walmart employee fired from his job for redeeming $5.10 worth of empty cans and bottles he found discarded in the parking lot sparked widespread outrage and is gaining traction nationally via social media.

Dounya Hamdam of Chicago read the story from a link on Instagram and started a GoFundMe crowd-funding site with a goal of $20,000 for the fired employee. To donate, go to gofund.me/ewb4c9yk

Tom Lomascolo, a landscaper in Mooresville, N.C., read the story on Facebook and said he intended to send the man a check for $510.
Local readers wrote and called the Times Union to express their anger at Walmart and vowed to boycott the store and to send the fired worker donations. An Altamont woman fired off a letter of indignation to C. Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart.

Checks can be sent for Thomas Smith c/o The Center for Law and Justice, 220 Green St., Albany, NY 12202.

This groundswell of civic action was touched off by a Times Union story Thursday about Smith, 52, who liked his job gathering shopping carts from the vast parking lot of the Walmart Supercenter here, where customers often left trash and empty drink containers.

Smith picked up the garbage for more than two months until Nov. 6, when he was fired for redeeming $5.10 worth of empty cans and bottles he found discarded on two occasions.

He was called into the security office and interrogated by a manager and two security staff members.

"I didn't know you couldn't take empties left behind. They were garbage," Smith said. "I didn't even get a chance to explain myself. They told me to turn in my badge."

Surveillance cameras caught Smith redeeming the empty bottles and cans at the store, tantamount to theft of Walmart property, according to the manager.

Smith said he was never informed about that rule.

Smith was fired three hours after the normal end of his shift. He had agreed to work extra time that Friday when the store was short of employees.

The manager asked Smith to repay the $5.10, but he didn't have any cash on him. He took a one-hour bus ride from Albany and paid the money back to the manager on Sunday.

"I did the right thing and stayed out of trouble. I worked hard and did a good job. I ended up getting a raw deal," said Smith, who is on parole after being released from prison in May. He served a 15-year sentence for a 2002 armed robbery of a KeyBank on Route 9 in Latham. The father of two said he robbed the bank to pay for a heroin and cocaine habit.

The manager, Heather, who would not give her last name, refused to speak to a Times Union reporter at the store Wednesday.

"We can't comment on human resource matters," said Aaron Mullins, a spokesman at Walmart's corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. He said Smith was fired after an internal investigation and human resource review, but declined to elaborate.

Smith was fired from his $9-an-hour job a few weeks before his 90-day probationary period was up, denying him a 10 percent employee discount and other benefits.

Smith, who is African-American, contacted prisoner advocate Alice Green at the Center for Law and Justice in Albany. She took up Smith's cause after hearing his account that alleged racial discrimination. During his interrogation, the manager told Smith that a store cashier, who is white, was caught on camera stealing $20 from a cash register and stuffing it into her bra. The cashier paid the money back and was not terminated because she has five kids.

"It raised issues of race and gender," Green said.

Green and a staff attorney tried to contact Walmart managers, but none would listen to their concerns or their appeal to get Smith reinstated to his job.

"It made me angry because this defeats everything we've been working for over the past 30 years," said Green, whose organization helps former inmates find employment.

Smith had been homeless for four months before he sought help from the Homeless and Travelers Aid Society, which pays his rent in a Central Avenue rooming house. He worries about not being able to buy Christmas presents for his two teenage children.

Natalie McDuffie, of Troy, commiserated with Smith about his firing as she pushed shopping carts across the parking lot Wednesday.

"He was a good employee and did what he was supposed to do," she said.

Smith is considering a lawsuit.

"This is an injustice," he said. "I was done dirty."

[StLucieBengal]

Sad story no doubt.

How is it racial? He just took Walmart garbage ... Walmart recycles so it's their property. The security seemed to be a little overzealous.

Being a criminal probably didn't help his cause.

[GMDino]

(11-20-2015, 12:56 AM)StLucieBengal Wrote: Sad story no doubt.  

How is it racial?  He just took Walmart garbage ... Walmart recycles so it's their property.   The security seemed to be a little overzealous.  

Being a criminal probably didn't help his cause.

I never know if you're a troll or just don't / can't read.

[CKwi88]

(11-20-2015, 08:25 AM)GMDino Wrote: I never know if you're a troll or just don't / can't read.

Are those mutually exclusive?

[Mike M (the other one)]

That's messed up.
Being a former criminal definitely doesn't help, but for what he did, it shouldn't have hurt his cause either.
If that was his only infraction, then he shouldn't have been fired for it.
He should have been given an official warning and paid it back. What the other girl did, was straight up thievery, and she knew it, yet she was allowed to repay it and keep her job.

[StLucieBengal]

(11-20-2015, 08:25 AM)GMDino Wrote: I never know if you're a troll or just don't / can't read.

I just don't automatically go to racism anytime a black person loses their job.

Sucks for the guy that's for sure.

[fredtoast]

(11-20-2015, 01:33 PM)StLucieBengal Wrote: I just don't automatically go to racism anytime a black person loses their job.  

Sucks for the guy that's for sure.

Smith, who is African-American, contacted prisoner advocate Alice Green at the Center for Law and Justice in Albany. She took up Smith's cause after hearing his account that alleged racial discrimination. During his interrogation, the manager told Smith that a store cashier, who is white, was caught on camera stealing $20 from a cash register and stuffing it into her bra. The cashier paid the money back and was not terminated 

[StLucieBengal]

(11-20-2015, 02:16 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Smith, who is African-American, contacted prisoner advocate Alice Green at the Center for Law and Justice in Albany. She took up Smith's cause after hearing his account that alleged racial discrimination. During his interrogation, the manager told Smith that a store cashier, who is white, was caught on camera stealing $20 from a cash register and stuffing it into her bra. The cashier paid the money back and was not terminated 

Yes I saw that.... But does his past history of being a criminal play into the way they. Can treat him as an employee? To be fair I don't know the policy on this as I have never had to follow any hiring guidelines. So my question to you Fred .... Can he have a shorter leash?

[Benton]

(11-20-2015, 02:42 PM)StLucieBengal Wrote: Yes I saw that....  But does his past history of being a criminal play into the way they. Can treat him as an employee?   To be fair I don't know the policy on this as I have never had to follow any hiring guidelines.     So my question to you Fred ....  Can he have a shorter leash?

Two things:
1- You're assuming the white female employee doesn't have a criminal history. She could very well have been an axe murderer. We don't know.

2- His history is irrelevant. One part of incarceration is rehabilitation. If we're going to incarcerate people under the concept that people can be reformed (because otherwise, we're just wasting time jailing people), then we have to give them an opportunity to prove themselves once they are released. What he did constitutes going through the garbage, which isn't the same as theft. Something discarded (either by the company or the customer) is in the public domain. If you set out a garbage can, I can legally go through it. Some municipalities have dumpster diving laws, but that's not Wal-Mart's claim as to why they fired him.

[StLucieBengal]

(11-20-2015, 03:14 PM)Benton Wrote: Two things:
1- You're assuming the white female employee doesn't have a criminal history. She could very well have been an axe murderer. We don't know.

2- His history is irrelevant. One part of incarceration is rehabilitation. If we're going to incarcerate people under the concept that people can be reformed (because otherwise, we're just wasting time jailing people), then we have to give them an opportunity to prove themselves once they are released. What he did constitutes going through the garbage, which isn't the same as theft. Something discarded (either by the company or the customer) is in the public domain. If you set out a garbage can, I can legally go through it. Some municipalities have dumpster diving laws, but that's not Wal-Mart's claim as to why they fired him.

1. Yes I am. I only have the info provided to go on. Which is why I questioned.

2. Same as above we need more info .... But wouldn't it all be irrelevant since they can fire him for any reason during that probation period? Once again I'm not sure on walmarts employee policy. On his criminal history, I wasn't sure if that could play into it which is why I asked.

[Vas Deferens]

(11-20-2015, 02:42 PM)StLucieBengal Wrote:  Can treat him as an employee?  

Stop.  Think.  Post.

Please use that order going forward.  You're wasting everyone's time.

[Benton]

(11-20-2015, 03:20 PM)StLucieBengal Wrote: 1. Yes I am.  I only have the info provided to go on.  Which is why I questioned.  

2.  Same as above we need more info .... But wouldn't it all be irrelevant since they can fire him for any reason during that probation period?   Once again I'm not sure on walmarts employee policy.    On his criminal history, I wasn't sure if that could play into it which is why I asked.

1. It's not questioning if you say "I just don't automatically go to racism anytime a black person loses their job." That's stating there isn't a possibility of a double standard... which there is given bra lady wasn't fired.

2. Depending on company policy and state law, they can probably fire him at time without cause. But they gave cause (taking garbage discarded in a public area) which could open them up to legal problems and definitely opens them up to looking like greedy morons.

[StLucieBengal]

(11-20-2015, 04:23 PM)Benton Wrote: 1. It's not questioning if you say "I just don't automatically go to racism anytime a black person loses their job." That's stating there isn't a possibility of a double standard... which there is given bra lady wasn't fired.

2. Depending on company policy and state law, they can probably fire him at time without cause. But they gave cause (taking garbage discarded in a public area) which could open them up to legal problems and definitely opens them up to looking like greedy morons.

1. I just get aggravated when racism is throw around. It seems everything counts as racism and it lessens the legitimate claims.

2. Is the cans on their property considered public? Or would it depend on how the locals treated that situation? Or does Walmart have the ability to dictate that policy?

[6andcounting]

(11-20-2015, 02:16 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Smith, who is African-American, contacted prisoner advocate Alice Green at the Center for Law and Justice in Albany. She took up Smith's cause after hearing his account that alleged racial discrimination. During his interrogation, the manager told Smith that a store cashier, who is white, was caught on camera stealing $20 from a cash register and stuffing it into her bra. The cashier paid the money back and was not terminated 

(11-20-2015, 02:42 PM)StLucieBengal Wrote: Yes I saw that.... But

[Benton]

(11-20-2015, 05:35 PM)StLucieBengal Wrote: 1. I just get aggravated when racism is throw around.   It seems everything counts as racism and it lessens the legitimate claims.  

2.  Is the cans on their property considered public?  Or would it depend on how the locals treated that situation?  Or does Walmart have the ability to dictate that policy?

1. Understandable.

2. Local laws may apply, but generally, garbage is considered public. If they're in a recycling bin, that's different as there is an expressed use.

[StLucieBengal]

(11-20-2015, 07:37 PM)Benton Wrote: 1. Understandable.

2. Local laws may apply, but generally, garbage is considered public. If they're in a recycling bin, that's different as there is an expressed use.

Very interesting..... Wish we knew more

[fredtoast]

This is one of those stories where I am pretty sure there is a lot of information left out. It really does not make a lot of sense.

But based on these few facts I would say they had the legal right to fire him. They just look bad for doing it.

[*michaelsean*]

I don't know about racism, but if this is the whole story, then that's ridiculous. Sounds pretty industrious to me which is what we hope for from ex cons.