Posted on 11/26/2007 5:36:35 PM PST by boughtwithaprice
After a sheet metal plant in Connecticut ordered its employees to speak only English on the job because of safety concerns, five Spanish-speaking workers decided to take the company to court.
The employees, who are legal immigrants, say the rule amounts to discrimination and actually makes the workplace more hazardous.
"I can think of no good reason for them to institute this policy," said Steven Jacobs, the lawyer for the workers who are suing GC Industries in Deep River, Conn. "It's offensive to people who speak Spanish and is potentially dangerous. It inhibits them from communicating in their native tongue in situations that could put people at risk."
According to the lawsuit, the plant's "Common Language Policy" was suddenly posted in fliers on the factory bulletin board on March 15, 2006.
The notice stated that "there be one language spoken during working time at all plants and facilities of GCI, and that language is English." It specified that the policy would be enforced when "any employee is 'on the clock,'" and said violations could lead to warnings and dismissal.
Court documents show that the announcement, which was also posted in Spanish, was signed by company president Thomas Arbella.
But Andres Moran, who speaks fluent English, said he and his four co-plaintiffs needed to communicate in Spanish in order to do their jobs.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I’ll bet there is a “comprehensive immigration policy” organisation behind this. I’m waiting for the ACLU?
Is Steven Jacobs a sheet metal worker in addition to being a lawyer?
ooops,if they didnt want the problem....
In a sane world, the owners or managers of that company should be able to fire any individual who did not comply with their rules.
Back when I was a factory foreman the company dropped a half dozen non english speaking hispanics on me. After an hour of unsuccessfully trying to show them how to do the job, I went and found an American hispanic employee who remembered some spanish from high school. I had him show them how to do the job.
My friend came up to me later and told me that “they speak english but not to you.”
I didn't read far enough to get to that part. That changes my opinion. Piss on them, they bought their own problems.
Thats right, the old, “no comprende” cop out.
OK,Mr Jacobs,how do you say "hey,watch out for that 10 ton roll of sheet metal that just broke loose" in Spanish?
And does anyone think Univision or Telemundo hires people who only speak English?
The campaign of hate and colonization by the detritus of the Spaniard empire continues.
“When THEY came for the bank account of a guy that owned and operated
a glass factory, I did nothing. Because I didn’t have a glass factory.”
Does kinda’ give an insight into how a GOOD Civilization can be destroyed
a few little pieces at a time over years.
>>My friend came up to me later and told me that “they speak english but not to you.”<<
Yep, I’ve seen that happen more times than I can count.
I used to manage 100-150 employees in a manufacturing environment, and the majority of them were ESL. They knew how to speak English, but refused to. They would only do it when it was convenient for them. They were, in essence, lazy about it.
What they didn’t know was that I had picked up enough conversational Spanish to understand what they were saying.
Query: As a factory foreman, would you consider it possibly dangerous if you couldn’t understand what some workers were telling other workers about how to do their jobs? It seems to me there is a legitimate safety issue where instructions are filtered through non-supervisory people. Am I wrong?
OR, they can go home.
I wonder how it escapes them that someone named Arbella probably speaks a little Spanish himself!
The company I work for has a LARGE workforce that is Vietnamese,all good hard workers....we have liason to work out the details we can’t convey,never been a problem. Now,if you are skilled enough to work in sheetmetal,you know the inherant dangers and there is not any VOCAL thing that is going to save your life in the event of an accident,this whole issue has been posted on FR before and it is nothing but a trial lawywers boondoggle set up,unfortunately, by the employer. You’re correct,I’ll bet they like the cheap employment they got...and those employees probably aren’t members of the sheetmetal workers union.
What’s the Spanish words for “you’re fired, a$$hole”?
Tell you what you do... there’s a bus headed for Reynosa in the morning. Get your ass on it and you can habla espanol all you want when you get there.
In Mexico if workers were fired for speaking a language other than Spanish nobody would bat an eye and the courts would laugh themselves silly if anyone complained. And with good reason. I had a lot of relatives from Mexico and everyone made speaking English the first priority when they got here. When they became citizens they started voting Republican.
The brazen hypocrisy of these five weasels disgusts me.
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