As many of you know, my wife lost her job last week. She was the head of the children's dept. at the Greenwood Fred Meyer. She's gonna miss getting up at 3 AM and starting work at 5. NOT!
For the longest time, it was a joke amongst the rest of us as to when Twila would "officially" be off and when she'd get home from work. Keep in mind that we live 5 minutes or less from the Greenwood Fred Meyer. She'd continue to putter around the store either working off the clock or shopping, only to show up here usually around an hour after she got off. Of late, management was trying to send her a message about working off the clock. According to some by-law it's illegal. So they suspended her without pay. (She was so embarassed that she couldn't tell me.) One day, she worked 2 hours over and only put in for one and they suspended her again. This time she was warned that when she came back, she was not to wear her name tag or apron when she was off the clock ande still in the store. Well, while walking through her department, she saw 2 blouses on the floor and hung them up. Sounds like the right thing to do, yes? Supposedly somebody saw her and reported this activity. No suspension this time, she was let go!
Ya know, at first I was a little pissed off. I was going to call everyone I know and ask them to not shop at Freddies any more. We'll show them! Realistically, that wouldn't have much of an affect on Kroger, the owner of QFC and Fred Meyer. Sure, I could picket, but they'd kick me off their side of the street and nobody would see me on the other side. So I decided on this course of action. I called the office of David Dillon, the CEO of Kroger, and left a message with someone in his front office that told me he'd read it. Twila called the union and they've responded. Please know that we're pretty certain she won't get her job back. That isn't what this is about. What we want David Dillon to know is how petty they were in letting her go. Yes, she violated some of the by-laws. She didn't always take her breaks and she worked off the clock. Boo f'ing hoo! She never stole anything, took days off 'cuz the sun was out or refused to do things because she didn't want to. In our minds, her being terminated was all about them wanting to get rid of a full time worker so they could bring in a part time person and pay them less. Just forget about the years of service she gave the company, it's time for her to move on. Bye. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!
So tomorrow she'll try and sign up for unemployment. Gotta start looking for health care coverage, too. We may also have to rethink our plan of moving to Maui in 5 - 10 years. We needed another 5 or so years at Freddies in order for her to get a good pension. We'll not let this get us down, somehow it will make us stronger. Perhaps she'll find a job for the Holidays that will lead to something after the Holidays, just like what happened at Freddies. Stay posted. More later!
Big Dogg out!
