Los Angeles Times: PA. Man Says He Was Fired for Origin

http://latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-confederate-flag0811aug11.story?coll=la%2Dap%2Dtopnews%2Dheadlines

Pa. Man Says He Was Fired for Origin
By Associated Press

August 11 2001

NEW STANTON, Pa. -- A man born and raised in Pennsylvania says he was
discriminated against because of his national origin, which he describes as
"Confederate Southern American."

In a lawsuit filed Friday, 62-year-old Curt Storey, of Hunker, Pa., said Burns
International Security Services fired him from his job as a security guard in
May for refusing to remove Confederate flag and related stickers from his lunch
bucket and pickup truck.

Storey wants to be reinstated to his $8-an-hour job along with back pay and
damages.

Kirk Lyons, Storey's attorney, works for the Southern Legal Resources Center,
which has represented white separatist groups and other people who say they have
been discriminated against because of their Confederate heritage.

Lyons said the case is the first of its kind filed by someone who has lived his
entire life north of the Mason-Dixon line.

Storey has Southern ancestors, and Lyons said the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission standard for national identity should include anyone who feels
strongly about their ties to the old South or the Confederacy.

A representative who answered the telephone at the Burns International office in
Pittsburgh said Saturday that nobody was available to comment on the lawsuit.

Storey considers his firing discrimination "because Burns Security specifically
targeted Confederate symbols only ... Burns assumes, prejudicially, that the
Confederate flag is a racist symbol and that therefore I am intentionally trying
to offend other workers."

Two small Confederate flags decorate Storey's lunch box and he has two other
stickers on his truck, reading "Heritage not hate" and "The South was right."

Storey said "The South was right," refers to a book that argues the Civil War
was fought over states' rights to sovereignty, not slavery.

Copyright 2001 Associated Press

He is going to bring a federal suit over an 8.00 an hour job?

Seems to me he could walk into any fast food place and earn as much.

What would have been interesting is if he had a tatto of the confederate flag, and they fired him for that.

The issue is not the hourly wage but rather discrimination. We all know that all Hell would break loss if someon was fired for having a Malcom X sticker on their lunch box. It all goes back to what southerns have been trying to say for years; The war was not over slavery and the flag does not represent hate or racism.

By the way, I do have a Confederate flag tattoo.

Sure he could but why should he have to?   He should be able to honor the CSA ideals and symbols.  

I agree with gunslinger and 7. The issue is discrimination---the man should be able to put whatever decal, tatoo or whatever on his lunchbox,his truck and  his person without his superiors giving him a problem about it. At my workplace they have a policy against wearing political buttons, etc in the workplace. Well, this is America and also I do not believe in that rule---all issues like these should not provoke rage among the employees but only informed discussions like we have here at AR15.com---too bad that is not the case.

In this wonderful place we call america the employer also has rights. And your rights cannot infringe on their rights- you are on their property, on their dime. You are there under voluntary agreement by both sides. If you violate your side of the agreement (no smoking, no political buttons on company property, no porn downloading) they have the absolute right to fire you.

People are so eager to go on and on about freedom - except when someone else's freedom interferes with the 'rights' they think they should have.

schnacke,  you are correct about the employer having rights also. However they have a legal obligation to apply their work rules fairly & evenly. It's something I have to be aware of all the time for fear of wrongful dismissal lawsuits.  The cost of defense is high enough & even if you win, up go the premiums.

If Mr Storey can prove or show that other employees remain employed and allowed to retain stickers with messages on their lunch buckets & vehicles, he has a good case. Just depends upon how big an issue he sees it & how much money he is willing to spend.