Posted on 07/26/2005 12:40:20 PM PDT by wmichgrad
When Tom Kekoni showed up for work at Babbitt's Sports Center on May 17, he had no idea it would be his last day.
That morning, a sales manager approached Kekoni, a 46-year-old certified mechanic, and asked him whether he had made a certain recent purchase.
The mechanic acknowledged he had, and the sales manager informed him that he didn't need to punch in for work.
Kekoni thought the guy was teasing him.
"Too late, I already did," Kekoni responded.
A little later, the sales manager again approached Kekoni, asking if he believed him.
Kekoni said he did, but he wanted to "hear it from the horse's mouth," referring to his boss, Eddie Babbitt.
Babbitt then fired Kekoni.
The reason?
Kekoni had just bought a 2005 Harley-Davidson Superglide motorcycle. Babbitt's sells products that compete with Harley, such as Yamaha and Polaris.
"How would it look if my mechanic drives in on a competitor's product?" Babbitt said.
Both Kekoni and Babbitt admit to the firing, which broke no laws.
According to Jack Finn, an administrator with the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth, Babbitt did nothing illegal.
"Michigan employment is termed 'at will', and as a result an employer can terminate an employee without cause," Finn said.
Kekoni and Babbitt sharply disagree over whether a policy existed against owning competitors' products.
Kekoni, 47, alleges no such thing existed. "There was no policy," he said.
Babbitt, meanwhile, claims the policy always has existed. "It's been a standing policy here forever," he said.
Babbitt added that Kekoni should have been tipped off to the policy by two incidents prior to his firing.
The first was a firing about a month before Kekoni's. Babbitt terminated another employee for buying a Honda off-road motorcycle from a different vendor.
Before that, Kekoni said he approached a sales manager concerning some used Harley bikes in Babbitt's showroom. After Kekoni inquired about purchasing them, he said the sales manager told him, "You don't want to do that."
Kekoni said it wasn't clear to him why the sales manager responded the way he did.
He would later end up buying the bike through Sandy's Harley-Davidson in Fremont, and it already had been shipped when the other employee was fired.
Shortly after letting Kekoni go, Babbitt said his business came under fire from Harley sympathizers and owners.
"I've been blasted online ... it's not easy being the boss," he said.
Kekoni said he learned nothing can be done legally. He remains upset about the reasoning behind his firing.
"Everybody in my opinion has the right to own and buy what they feel they want to have," he said. "It shouldn't be dictated to you by your boss."
Kekoni said he plans to keep the bike.
"It's a helluva thing to get fired over."
Or if Tom now has the opportunity to campaign full-time for Hillary's 2008 presidential run.
Good lookin' rollers. I'm a sucker for a good blue paint job in any event.
No. Good faith is a legitmate judicial issue. If a company is promising employees that they'll be vested in a reitrement system in 20 years, than firing them in their 19th year, then the company is not acting in good faith. It's perfectly legitmate in those circumstances for government, via the judiciary to compell this company to pony up.
Wrong. CHP doesn't use HD because CHP stipulates the use of anti-lock braking systems, which HD doesn't offer.
A Honda may get you home for a year or two but a Harley will get you home for decades. I still have my 73 Sportster. How many people can say the same about a 73 Honda?
WHat year is the front end on that pan head?
Nice scoots, all! (Even the the wittle one.)
"I'm a sucker for a good blue paint job in any event."
I hate blue, but it just seems to find me. All bikes, except fire engine red 1947 Indian Chiefs, should be black.
I believe my bro told me HD is offering the anti-lock on the PD bikes now, and will put it in the entire 2007 touring line up. :-) (Maybe he said 2006, I dunno)
The Pan is a 48 motor, 58 frame with a weld-in hardtale, 68 gas tanks and it used to have a 78 Super-Glide front end. I replaced the front end with an FXWG (Early Wide-Glide) setup two years ago.
The design of the front end is 1983. The trees, wheel and brakes are original. The forks are new.
You actually believe that trip you wrote don't you?
How did he brainwash you into thinking he was right? Your private behavior is just that, yours. It's none of his business, period.
Maybe wrong now, but wouldn't have been wrong the 10 years ago I mentioned....I doubt they had that kind of brakes then on just about anything.
Well, you know what they say. Every now and then, the sun even shines on a dog's ass ;-)
I like! Nice scoot!!! Thanks for info. There's a lot of "8's" in that bike!
'48, '58, '68, '78, '83. :-)
Actually, I sit around at the Rock Store on Sunday ans listen to all the bacon riders bitch about exactly this.
They used to laugh at my rice burner until I would point to their odometer and laugh my ass off. 3,500 miles on a year year old bike? I do that in a month.
Jay Leno even did an impromptu monologue on it one weekend. Everyone said it would have been fnny if it wasn't so true.
Hardley's are the least reliable bikes on the market. Do they look cool? Heck yeah. But people tend to like to get where they are going.
Nope. That's a redo of one of the *option* paint jobs from back in the days when the Indian MC Company was owned and run by the DuPont family...and numerous very classy paint jobs, including the Indian *Rainbow* paint scheme, were around.
I think that one's on the tank off one of the *Straight Four* four-cylinder Indians.
The original Indian factory *Vindian,* in which a 1948 Indian Chief chassis was mated with a high-performance Vincent OHV motor [a decade before the OHV Harley Sportster saw the light of day] was painted plain [DuPont] Indian Blue. Mine too.
Mine: 2001 Honda ST1100
Well, at least we know who has the brains in the family.
Now go help the rest of the family read "Fun with Dick and Jane" :-p
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