Domino's driver fired for lecture of D.M. girl (about her "Say no to war with Iraq" sign)

Des Moines Regester ^ | 3-26-2003 | TOM ALEX

[Mr Crontab]

I didn't say he commited a crime.
But he blew it none the less, and got fired as a consequence.

[Protagoras]

If she has the right to have a sign, he has a right to disagree with her.

No one on this thread has asserted anything else. The question was about his behavior on company time in company uniform.

No double standard at all. I would also point out that a sign in a window that one disagrees with should be properly disagreed with by putting a sign in your own window. Entering private property to confront someone is out of line in my book.

[Protagoras]

His only mistake was in wearing a company logo while doing it.

On company time in dereliction of his job. He isn't getting paid to do anything except deliver pizzas.

[kayak]

"McKillop, 58, said he was on his way to work Friday"

He was in company uniform but the article states very clearly that he was on his way to work ... thus NOT on company time and not in dereliction of his job. I won't debate the propriety of this incident but would like to see the facts reported properly.

[Protagoras]

I stand corrected.

[Bob]

He stopped his job, went up to a private residence, and while on the job, in uniform,...

Close but not quite the case.

From the article:
McKillop, 58, said he was on his way to work...

While he was certainly wrong to have done this while wearing his company uniform, you're misstating the facts of the situation.

[JoeSixPack1]

Obviously the consequence was a minimal disturbance. He broke no law.

The 1st Amendment works in two directions.

[fml]

Tha action he took was to talk. He had nothing to do with the sign burning. And why in heavens sake did they call the police? He didn't threaten anyone. Like a conservative he takes full rsponsiblitly for his actions, and Dominos was wrong.

[Cultural Jihad]

If they are going to missapply the constitutional principal with regard to the chicks, et al, they might at least do it consistently.

Not at all. If the patriotic fellow was on the company's clock, then the employer has every right to terminate his employment if they choose to. He was being paid to provide a service to the public, not to enter into political debates with the public.

[Cultural Jihad]

Even if he wasn't being paid for the time he spent at the stranger's door, the fact that he was wearing the company's uniform would still be grounds for firing.

[Cagey]

If the patriotic fellow was on the company's clock, then the employer has every right to terminate his employment if they choose to. He was being paid to provide a service to the public, not to enter into political debates with the public.

You probably missed it, but ...."McKillop, 58, said he was on his way to work"...

I'd think Domino's Pizza doesn't consider you on the company's clock until you are on the company's clock.

[Cultural Jihad]

I got that by post 50. Thanks!

[JoeSixPack1]

Unlike Jennings or Mike Wallace, his patriotism doesn't stop because his boss told him to.
On another thread Wallace was to have said his job as a reporter trumps his patriotism. He went as far to say he would not interfere in an ambush of American soldiers if he was assigned to report from the opposing side of a war conflict.

People need to get their priorities straight. If this country takes a crap, your political opinion and all the benefits of a free nation are lost.

McKillop understands that. And his pizza delivery job wasn't as important as his dedication to our American Warriors currently in battle.

[Cagey]

I'll have to learn to type faster.

I agree that firing should be considered in this case, but I'd have to consider discussing the situation in a case like this. Unless Domino's has a "one strike" and you're out policy, I would hope a situation like this could be discussed. Then again, many corporations don't use common sense.

[JoeSixPack1]

Screw the company clock. The following is something i have and can't find an author for:

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which think that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

[Cultural Jihad]

Then again, many corporations don't use common sense.

It was the patriotic fellow who hadn't used common sense. He admitted to being overwhelmed emotionally after watching a TV account of the war, and that he didn't know what he was going to say when he got to the stranger's door. These are not hallmarks of common sense. If the roles were reversed and you had some worker from a pizza company knocking on your door wearing his uniform and proceeded to harangue you about flying your American flag and how evil the President is, I would wager you would be calling his employer, too, to complain.

Because they deal with the public, they are more than likely subject to certain rules of behavior off the job when it comes to besmirching the integrity and reputation of the company. Attending an anti-war march with a Dominos uniform on might result in a similar termination.

[RonDog]

Your quote is from John Stuart Mill - (scroll down - about halfway down the page) - "The Contest in America," pp. 208-09,
in John Stuart Mill, Dissertations and Discussions (Boston, 1867).

[Cultural Jihad]

Well said. Then again, you don't see the patriotic fellow griping about the consequences of his actions, do you?

[PhilDragoo]

Thank you, Joe.