1963 - Getting Fired

1963 – Getting Fired

I was a union officer and pretty good at that job as well as my job for the coil company. I was making eighty cents an hour.

I kept getting sick, but didn’t miss any work. I finally went to the doctor and found out that it was my gall bladder and that I was going to have to have surgery. While I was in the hospital I got a letter from the company saying that my job had been terminated.

It took a while for me to get back on my feet and for the doctor to release me. In April when the doctor finally released me I went in and signed up for unemployment. I was told that the company said I had quit. I showed the letter of termination that I had received to the unemployment office and they sent a letter against the company. I wound up having to have a review about my job. Ed Shaheen, who was from the Frankfort office was a witness for me. He told the unemployment office that I had never missed work and never been late.

The decision was in my favor. The company had to pay me back pay from the time that I was released by the doctor and had to reinstate me to my job. This was on down into the fall and getting close to Christmas. Then on December 23 we received the money from the settlement. Without that we would have had no Christmas. I never did go back to work for the company. I didn’t like the company had fired me while I was in the hospital; nor the fact that the union hadn’t stood up for me against the company when they fired me.