Posted on 03/11/2006 6:38:04 AM PST by Hillarys Gate Cult
SAN DIEGO ---- A Vista woman suing her former employer for allegedly firing her for having a bumper sticker on her car touting progressive talk radio made the rounds Friday on national and local radio shows.
During interviews Friday, Linda Laroca said her former employer later told her the comment about the firing was a joke, and asked her back to work.
Laroca, alongside her attorneys, made her first public comments about the suit during an appearance on the Stacy Taylor show on KLSD, 1360 AM, a local affiliate of the progressive talk-radio network, Air America.
Laroca also spoke later in the day on two syndicated programs: the nationwide Ed Schultz show (a part of the Jones network) and Air America's national Randi Rhodes show, with Sam Seder filling in as a substitute host Friday.
Laroca alleges in her suit that her former manager spotted the bumper sticker advertising Air America, told Laroca she could be a member of al-Qaida, and fired her on the spot.
Laroca said Friday that the woman, Beverly Fath, called Laroca the Monday after the weekend incident to ask Laroca why she was not at work.
Laroca said that when she told Fath that she had thought the former manager had fired her two days prior, Fath allegedly told her that the comments about the firing had been in jest.
Asked if she had mistaken her former manager's alleged comments, Laroca told the North County Times she didn't believe the woman had been joking.
"If she was, I didn't take it that way," Laroca said. "She wasn't smiling."
The North County Times has been unable to locate Fath for comment, and no one answered the door Friday at a home thought to be Fath's residence.
Laroca had worked for the company, Irvine-based Advantage Sales and Marketing Inc., about three weeks before the alleged incident occurred on Oct. 8 ---- Laroca's 52nd birthday.
A phone call to the company was received with a "no comment," and the attorney believed to be representing the company has not returned phone calls from the North County Times.
After the radio interviews Friday ---- including nearly an hour on Taylor's talk show, Laroca said she was surprised at the media attention her suit has attracted.
"Not one thing in my head could expect something like this," Laroca said.
After his show Friday morning, Taylor said Laroca's story struck a chord with his listeners, and the vast majority of his callers Friday wanted to talk about Laroca.
"The whole oppression of speech and expression has been a big theme of the show," Taylor said.
In her suit, filed Feb. 21, Laroca charges that Fath asked her to meet up in a grocery store parking lot on a Saturday to hand off some paperwork.
During that brief encounter, the lawsuit asserts, Fath allegedly pointed to the sticker ---- the only one on Laroca's small white convertible ---- and called it "that Al Franken left-wing radical radio station."
The nationwide syndicated radio programming from Air America, which describes itself as "progressive entertainment talk radio," features such show hosts as comedian and author Al Franken.
Laroca's suit claims that Fath also told the woman she could be a member of al-Qaida, then allegedly followed up with, "I am going to just have to fire you."
The conversation, Laroca said Friday, ended on that note.
Laroca said she got into to her car after the incident and sat stunned for a few minutes.
"I stewed about it for days," Laroca said, adding that she later decided to call an attorney to see if the case had merit.
Laroca said that after Fath told her the comments were in jest, the company later invited Laroca in writing to return to work or face losing her job. Laroca said she did not respond.
Laroca's suit is seeking lost wages and damages for wrongful termination for violations of both public policy and the state labor code. She is also claiming state constitutional violations and emotional distress.
The California labor code prohibits employers from controlling or directing the political activities of employees.
Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 631-6624 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.
At the same time, the firing did not occur. The employer made things right and is still being sued. This is a typical leftist response-sue. What loss can the woman demonstrate other than one day's wages?
Okay, so the whole "You're fired" is a joke, which this woman didn't get.
They ask her back to work, tell her she's not fired & she decides she'd rather sue for being fired, even though she wasn't really fired.
I'm not surprised. Most of the lefty's I know have NO sense of humor - they are truly humor-impaired.
TRANSLATION: I posted and posted at DUmmieLand and realized that I could win the lawsuit lottery and never have to work again. I could go join Code Pinko and get to kiss Cindy Sheehans a$$ and then come back and brag about it to all my fellow freaks! Yippee Me! Yippee Me!
/s
I agree. How could you not know you were fired? Who fires someone over a bumper sticker ... right on the spur of the moment? Could it have been a joke that the employee decided to escalate?
Nope. Most of us understand the Employer should have the right to hire and fire whom ever they want. Contrary to the Leftist mythology, MOST of us understand you are not entitled to any job you want. If an employer wants to fire you for being a Righty, that is their business. Personally I believe it would be a stupid business decision, but it is entirely their right.
Do you part, FIRE A LIBERAL TODAY!!!
If that poor, poor woman is really without a job, perhaps she could join that peace activist group in Iraq.....now that there's an opening....
If the boss was joking, she should have known better. Liberals cannot take a joke. As for the al-Qaida remark...well, read my tagline.
I'm afraid the company is in the soup for sure.
They're dealing with a liberal = professional victim. The professional victims are good at what they do.
Progressive = communist.
Mark
Agreed. Better to let AA die all on it's own.
KLSD????? Man, you can't make this stuff up!
Threatening to kill someone is not a laughing mater, and it is against the law to kill someone. This is no different than a sexual predator intending to meet someone, even though he doesn't get any sex he is prosecuted as if he did. The same thing should go for death threats.
This is serious business, like Airport security, and just as airport security is not a laughing mater, neither are death threats, Mister.
You know, sometimes I hate adding a sarcasm tag...
I believe just the opposite. A wise employer would seek to avoid hiring people like this in the first place and, failing that, would find ways to get rid of them after finding out what they are about.
It isn't her politics per se that make her poisonous in the work enivironment. It's her sense of entitlement and vengeful personality. This is the kind of humorless troublemaker who keeps the rest of the employees constantly agitated, who is looking to file a complaint withthe EEOC if you attempt to correct her disruptive behavior or require her to conform to the the minimum requirements of the job.
In my opinion, this womyn appears to be unemployable, and for good reason.
Oh for Heaven's sake, lighten up. I'm talking about the old JOKE of "If I tell you, I'll have to kill you"....like I heard an actor from the Sopranos tell a tv interviewer yesterday when asked about the upcoming plot lines.
THAT'S what I meant, MISTER!
Think for a second about why I made mention of a sarcasm tag! I could tell you why I made mention of it... but then I would have to kill you.
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