RETURN MESSAGE FROM BUSINESS INVOLVED IN FLAG FLYING CONTROVERSY

9-22-02 | dfu

[doug from upland]

ORIGINAL STORY: FLAG FLYING CONTROVERSY

My e-mail to the company:

I just read a story that you don't want the flag flying at your business. If that is how you feel, screw your business. 50,000 registered users of www.freerepublic.com are prepared to raise hell on the Internet. People are going to know what you are doing. We are at war. Show that you are proud to be American.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/753984/posts

RESPONSE:

To all of you have contacted us about this story, we sincerely regret that you have been totally misinformed by the way that the news media has depicted the relevant issues. We appreciate your level of interest and we are glad to know that the proper display or our American flag is important to you. The display of flags at Chem Fab is not "Prohibited" in any way.

All that we require is that they be displayed properly. Unfortunately, the news media chose to use a headline that made it sound like we had a policy against flags. This is not true. Just drive by our plant any time and you see this.

The real story here is as follows: During the week of 9-11 the office staff here put up many flags in recognition of the anniversary of 9-11. Although it was a great display, some of the flags were not hung in a neat and orderly fashion, and others were put up with scotch tape. At the end of the week, the office supervisor took the flags down and put them away for use next year. I would draw a comparison to the way many cemeteries put up flags for Memorial Day. While they are up for this special occasion, they are beautiful and inspiring. Once the week is over, the extra flags are properly put away for next years display. Below you will find the internal communication our employees on this incident. By sharing this with you, we hope that you will better understand the true situation at our company.

To: All Employees 9-19-2002

Subject: The American Flag

Dear Chem-Fab Employees,

This week many of you have expressed your concerns relative to the display of the American Flag within our office areas. I would like to clarify our company position relative to this incident in effort to respond to your concerns.

First of all, it will never be our intent to limit the proud display of the Stars and Stripes in any of our shops or offices. In fact, you will note that we have been flying the flag in front our main plant, and in all of our shops, every day since 1990. The Army, Navy, Airforce and Marine flags also join the American flag in all of our 5 main shops. We take great pride in our direct support of the US military. The armed services have always been our very best customers. It should also be noted that the flagpole in front of the main office was hand built by Chem-Fab employees using excess helicopter cross tube material. We put up this pole in 1991 during the Desert Storm mission. I challenge anyone to find another company in our city , state, or country that displays a more thorough complement of flags within its walls.

The internal email message that was circulated that stirred people's interest was not intended to convey in any manner that Chem-Fab is "anti flag display". It was only intended to request that the office staff put away the extra flags that were displayed during the week of 9-11. We admit that there was a mistake made in the way that this was handled, and encourage you to understand that this incident in no way reflects our policy on this subject. While the choice of words in this message should have been different, the note was not intended to offend anyone. Please accept our sincerely apology if anyone was offended by the way this was handled.

Please now let me define our company policy relative to the display of the American flag at Chem-Fab. There has never been, nor will there ever be, any RESTRICTIONS on the display of the flag at your workstation or desk. We simply request that the flags be kept neat, clean, orderly, and not interfere with your job. The Chem-Fab Human Resources department will continue to maintain the larger flags that are already hanging in all of our shops, and in front of the main office.

In moving beyond the apology for this miscommunication, I would like for all of you to know that I am truly inspired that so many people at Chem-Fab would be charged-up by this issue. What that means is that we are a very proud and patriotic group of American citizens, and for that we should all be grateful. God Bless America !!

Sincerely,

Thomas Butler
President
Chem-Fab Corporation
501-622-4247
Fax 501-622-4349

[Arkinsaw]

Dear employees

A website called FreeRepublic has shamed us into backing off...ahem...I mean reinterpreting for clarity...our flag policy.

We had our fingers crossed when we sent out the first memo. It was supposed to be a joke. It was just a little clerical mistake. We aren't even sure that the memo was ours really.

So anyway....you can have flags in your workspaces and your bosses won't take it out on you. Honest they won't.

The Management

[barker]

The internal email message that was circulated that stirred people's interest was not intended to convey in any manner that Chem-Fab is "anti flag display".

So, what did the original message say? Looks like they're doing a little backpeddling here.

[RonDog]

From:

Flags Prohibited (FReep This Anti-American Business)
KATV.com ^ | September 18, 2002 | Michelle Rupp
Posted on 09/19/2002 9:48 PM Pacific by sweetliberty

-- snip --

To: sweetliberty

Here's the full text of the general manager's e-mail, gotten from the user forums at KATV.com (where there is already a lot of cussin' and discussin' on this issue). Apparently it was sent only to administrative office employees.

---

The patriotism of each of our employees is unquestionable... For that we all can be proud and we as individuals, as well as an "American Based Company" will remain proud of our heritage

I have taken down all of the flag in our areas and ask that if we have another holiday that is commensurate with the displaying of the American flag we do it for that holiday

We have the Flag displayed in front of our company and as stated we are a proud American based company. As we have many foreign customers and have them visit us let them see our "pride in our performance" and not in flags hanging over cubicle walls.

Any of you that had flags displayed, they are in the customer service area...

And again, I ask that they be displayed when we have a Holiday that is commensurate with the raising of the American flag.

Respectfully yours, Geoff Radford

General Manager

Chem-Fab Corporation

A Triumph Group Company

phone: 501-622-4281

fax: 501-622-4284

gradford@chem-fab.com

20 posted on 9/20/02 6:48 AM Pacific by Sloth

I don't know if this is legit, though.

Note that theis version says, "I have taken down all of the flag..."

I cannot imagine a top level manager writing so poorly...

[Syncro]

Maybe what he meant was:

All your flag are belong to us...

[RonDog]

LOL!

That's it!

BTW, how close are you to Palo Alto?

[Sloth]

I cannot imagine a top level manager writing so poorly...

LOL... Somebody set them up the bomb.

[Syncro]

I couldn't find anything about the Palo Alto thingie on the Davis website.

I am about 83.2 miles away from there (give or take a kilometer or two).

I won't be able to make it anyway, very buzy this week.

Are you on Media Queens email list?

[Fearless Flyers]

The first e-mail that started the controversy was written by a General Manager, Geoff Radford, The second letter is from the President of the company Thomas Butler.

While I have no doubts about the intention of Radford to squash patriotism within Chem-Fab, I have to applaud Mr. Butler for quickly remedying the situation and making it company policy that Old Glory be freely displayed as long as it done so properly and respectfully.

By putting this exception on company policy for displaying our National symbol it guarantees that when ever a foreign customer is in the presence of our Flag they will have to take notice.

I would like to know what happened to Radford for being such an idiot. In the last year many companies have taken hits for America Bashing. His ignorance of this or blatent disregard would make me question his leadership qualities. I don't think he would be working for me after this stupidity.

[sweetliberty]

"Maybe what he meant was:

All your flag are belong to us..."

LOL!