Union owes fired secretary

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100614/NEWS97/706149947#union-owes-fired-secretary

Published Monday June 14, 2010

By Todd Cooper WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

A former secretary for the Omaha police union had every right to write an e-mail critical of police and firefighter pay, a judge has ruled.

And, he said, the police union had a right to force her out.

But the union didn't have the right to deny her unemployment benefits by categorizing the e-mail as misconduct.

As a result, Douglas County District Judge James Gleason ordered that former secretary Michele McJunkin should receive all of her unemployment benefits. Union President Aaron Hanson and the Omaha police union board had sought to deny her 12 weeks of those benefits, worth a total of $3,816, by categorizing her behavior as “misconduct.”

Both Gleason and a Nebraska Department of Labor judge before him ruled that McJunkin's e-mail did not constitute misconduct.

“The statements of Michele McJunkin, made in an anonymous letter to her city council person, were not disloyal to her employer and did not bring any embarrassment (or) disrepute to her employer,” Gleason wrote. “The defendant has not given up her right to voice her personal opinions regarding an open public matter … merely by working for the (union).”

FULL story at link.

[justanaverageguy]

1. just supports my belief

that labor unions are just another corporation and act no differently than the corporations they demonize.

[Omaha Steve]

2. Welcome to the Labor Forum

I won't stick up for every union. I will defend most of them. There are unions with poor leadership. It happens.