Adding Insult To Injury
I got a call from a nurse saying my uncle had been shot and was in surgery. I dropped everything and went to the hospital. Sitting in the waiting room was his union rep. The rep explained that two men came into their workplace and demanded the clerks empty their cash drawers. When one had his back turned, my uncle rushed in to subdue him. The working theory is my uncle made too much noise, as the man suddenly turned and fired three shots (possibly more, but that is how many hit my uncle). According to my uncle’s coworkers, the gunshots rattled the men and started them fleeing before my uncle even hit the ground, taking only about $100.
The good news is my uncle survived. The bad news…oh boy. First, he was written up for violating procedure and not complying; the union was unable to get this overturned. Second, as this violated procedure, Workers’ Comp would not be covering his hospital bills. Third, this write-up and several others were enough to meet the requirements outlined in the union contract to fire him; the union was unable to overturn this, either. Fourth, as this surgery and hospitalization came as a result of a violation of procedure that culminated in his termination, his company health insurance was fighting to not pay for this either; this one the union was still fighting.
After the union rep left upon dropping the bombshell, I started trying to figure out how we were getting out of this one. As my frustration grew, I turned to my uncle and snapped about his thought process. He told me he was doing what he thought he was supposed to. When I asked him to clarify, he insisted an email had been sent out saying that workers were supposed to stop robbers because the company would hold workers responsible for the theft if they did nothing.
Already seeing a possible out and the window closing, I called a friend of mine. While he is a divorce lawyer, my friend knows enough legalese to get the company to halt wiping my uncle’s emails and workstation, and then he introduced me to someone better qualified for the situation. One subpoena later, and we had our copies. After a bit of searching, he found the email, and it said precisely what my uncle claimed. The two elements of particular note: the language in this email did not look like it had gone through a legal team, and the sender address did not look like upper management in the company. He and I were initially nervous about a scam, but my uncle revealed the email address belonged to his union rep. That got the lawyer a subpoena for a deep dive into the server.
It took considerably more digging to piece this together. Months ago, a different facility had also been hit. As no one stepped up, the robbers took the entirety of every drawer, totalling around $5,000. The trio practically had one foot out the door with the money when they suddenly turned around and pulled the manager into the back.
As it turns out, one particularly loud worker turned to the manager and commented how thankful he was they did not demand she open the safe. The last few night managers had been lazy about making bank runs, so their score jumped to nearly $150,000.
Once the police confirmed every one of the multitude of idiots had no connection to the thieves, the company handed out write-ups to the managers, but wanted to crucify the worker who opened his mouth, arguing this was predominantly his fault. The union would work out a deal to give this idiot a chance of not letting this destroy his hirability elsewhere, but one of the terms of the deal was the union had to clarify that the procedure of “complying” did not include volunteering information unprompted or jeopardizing the safety of their coworkers and managers, and that such acts would result in a write-up. In his laziness, the union rep instead represented this as the workers being responsible for losses by robbers and did not let legal review his actions.
This much got the lawyer very curious, and he subpoenaed my uncle’s disciplinary record. Upon cross-referencing similar slipshod memos with my uncle’s record, he showed me that while my uncle was violating the company’s directives, he was in compliance with the union’s notices; had the union mentioned these emails at the negotiations and arbitrations, his record would have been spotless.
The lawyer brought all of this to my uncle and me. He assured us this was an airtight case. While he doubted Workers’ Comp would budge, it was basically guaranteed the union would be paying my uncle’s medical bills and whatever wages he would be losing during recovery, and he was hopeful that the write-ups would be overturned and my uncle’s job returned.
Once the lawyer finished his outline of the case, my uncle verbally tore the lawyer a new one so hard he would tear his own stitches. He was overjoyed when we thought the case was against the company, but apparently the union is beyond reproach, and this lawyer is an idiot for suggesting they are ever at fault. As I tried to calm him, he lashed out at me for hiring this “incompetent ambulance chaser” and my friend for recommending him.
Once we left my uncle with the medical staff, I thanked the lawyer for his effort and apologized for wasting his time. However, as I was the one bankrolling this, we agreed I was *technically* his client as well, even if I was not the party suffering damages. Therefore, he handed over a copy of that file to me. I reached out to as many of my uncle’s coworkers as I could find. Management, worker, I did not care. Every last one of them got an outline of my lawyer’s findings. And boy oh boy did things blow up.
I am not privileged to the entire result, but here is what I do know. The union was massively overhauled and the problematic players removed completely. A bunch of workers got their records cleared and were assured there were notes in their files saying they were owed raises and promotions. Management put a thumb on the scale to ensure the company health insurance would still cover my uncle’s surgery and overnights. And a check arrived for my uncle from the new union president to cover his part of the bills.
The only bad news: since my uncle’s turnaround on the lawsuit was public knowledge and the file proved he listened to the union before he listened to management, the company would not undo his firing unless the union formally challenged his disciplinary record. This was still a guarantee, but my uncle refused to let them get the ball rolling.
Even after the overhaul, my uncle remained adamant that a union can never do any wrong, so he refused to let the new guard throw the old guard under the bus. Eventually, the new guard agreed my uncle was a lost cause and stopped pursuing the issue, wishing him good luck, knowing he was going to need it.
