Sims says the plant superintendent called him outside for a talk. He says the manager said, “Hey, we like your work here and we like you, but your flag, it’s gonna have to go. He said I hate to be the one to tell you that but if you don’t I’m gonna have to fire you.”
He says the company has called him three times since Monday morning offering to rehire him if he’d just take the flag off his truck. But now, Sims says it has just gone too far and he stands by his actions. “I’m unemployed now but I still feel that I made the right decision,” says Sims.
The background for Turner Industries states that they are into heavy industrial construction, pipe, module and vessel fabrication, equipment, rigging and heavy hauling. Based upon that description I doubt that they were using their own trucks to do work at other sites. A more likely prospect is that they did not want those vehicles parked outside their work site displaying a Confederate flag since it could result in vandalism or possible loss of business.
Alabama is a right to work state, so I suspect that insubordination is sufficient grounds to dismiss an employee The man had ample opportunities to address the situation that lead to his unemployment and I doubt that he will be able to collect unemployment.
ETA: Considering that the man appears to be middle-aged and with the downturn in that particular industry because of low oil prices the man probably should be more concerned about holding onto his job so could pay the truck note rather than displaying a flag.
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