The arbitrator found that Runion’s racist statements violated the explicit terms of Cooper Tire’s harassment policy because both statements were related to race and were disrespectful of the dignity and feelings of the African-American replacement workers. Runion also held up his middle finger at the vans, and an unidentified person shouted, “f_ing monkey scabs” and “f_ing ni_er scabs.” Another unidentified person yelled at the replacement workers, “Go back to Africa, you bunch of f_ing losers.”Ĭooper Tire fired Runion, and when his union grieved his termination, an arbitrator upheld the Company’s decision, finding that there had been “just cause” for the employer’s decision. Their statements included profanity, name-calling, accusations that the replacement workers were un-American and were stealing the locked out employees’ jobs, statements that the picketers did not want them there, and demands that they “go home” and “get out of here.” “I smell fried chicken and watermelon!”Īs the vans crossed the picket lines, the union members held up signs and yelled objections to the replacements entering the plant.“Hey, did you bring enough KFC for everyone?” and.As vans carrying them into the plant arrived to work on January 7, 2012, picketing union member Anthony Runion, a white employee who had worked at the plant for five years, yelled several racist statements, which were videotaped, at the vans, including: The replacement workers including many African-Americans. The employer, Cooper Tire & Rubber Company of Findlay, Ohio, had locked out its 1,050 unionized employees as a result of a collective bargaining agreement dispute, and hired temporary replacement workers to keep manufacturing tires. The fired employee, who was a member of the United Steelworkers union, had made the racist statements in 2012 while on a picket line protesting a management lockout. A company that fired an employee for violating its workplace anti-harassment policies by making racist remarks on a picket line has been ordered to give him his job back with back pay plus interest.
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