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Sure. If we knew everything there is to know about this case, I'm sure there would be a lot of grist for the mill. And it doesn't really matter if the shop is union or not, I suspect there is written in contract law wording that would support employees wrongfully let go, if that had been the case. I do think there is merit to the argument that if the company for the first time decided to search vehicles, their decision to terminate employees with guns in their vehicles was unethical. Did they serve them with notice that this was going to happen? Assuming their policy dictated no guns in vehicles, had it ever been enforced in the past? If someone worked there for most of their adult life, is that person now culpable because this morning policy is enforced...with a vengeance?

And the privacy issue hasn't been addressed much in this thread. Are the employees' vehicles used for company business? Aren't they collectively parked in a lot for the day and then used to leave? Assuming we do have a right to keep and bear arms, and assuming we have a modicum of privacy, it is unbelievable to me that this company would pursue this policy. How many vehicles were searched? Do they owe it to their shareholders to engage in this kind of police activity--given that the vehicles aren't used for company business, that the vehicles are only held in a pen while the workers work, and given the location of this employer, do they really want the people who work for them, who have worked for them for years, faithfully and honestly, to they want to be perceived in this light?

I hope we haven't heard the last of it.

What was company policy on employee discharge? Assuming it wasn't an employment-at-will situation, since the discharged employees must have had grounds in court, was there a breach of implied covenant of good faith? The employees had guns in their vehicles, an apparent breach on their part, but did the company also breach the contract by denying them due process by not giving them a chance to correct the offense? Did the company act without notice by conducting a search of employee vehicles--an action that may or may not have happened in the past? Was it company policy to threaten employees with termination if they did not consent to what amounted to an invasion of their privacy, given the company's track record? Again, a violation of due process by denying them a chance to correct their wrong if there had been no searchs in the past, this was unannounced, and the employees were operating on past company enforcement of policy.

Was the search limited to guns? Does company policy forbid other articles in employee vehicles? Civil rights legislation doesn't recognize gun owners as a protected class, but I hazard that the 2nd A does protect them as a class. Were all vehicles searched? If not, then gun owners were singled out and they have legal standing as a protected class based on the SA and the company is guilty of intentional disparate-treatment discrimination. Assuming this was the first time a search was conducted, a search that violated employees' rights to due process by not giving them an opportunity to correct their offense was the search also conducted during a scheduled hunting season? If so, why?