Reporter Fired Over Gay Marriage E-Mail

[megimoo]

WATERVILLE - Larry Grard, a veteran newspaper reporter at The Morning Sentinel in Waterville, says he was fired for sending an angry e-mail to a pro-gay marriage group....video

Update:
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/catholic_reporter_fired_over_comment_on_samesex_ma rriage_campaign/

Grard says he was offended by an e-mail he received from the DC-based Human Rights Campaign the day after the November 3rd vote overturning Maine's same-sex marriage law. He fired off a response, which read, in part, "You hateful people have been spreading nothing but vitriol since the campaign began. Good riddance!"

Grard says he was immediately fired when his boss found out about the e-mail.


http://www.myfoxmaine.com/dpp/news/20091211_reporter_fired_over_gay_marriage_e-mail

[noonwitch]

He wasn't fired for opposing gay marriage. He was fired for sending an email his employer thought was inappropriate, that was about gay marriage. I'd have to see his contract with the paper to see if the employer was acting within his/her rights.

I wonder if Mr. Grard has a union? Most newspaper employees are unionized. The union can address whether the employer followed the proper disciplinary course or not. Otherwise, employees don't really have any rights unless they have a contract that spells them out.

[megimoo]

He wasn't fired for opposing gay marriage. He was fired for sending an email his employer thought was inappropriate, that was about gay marriage. I'd have to see his contract with the paper to see if the employer was acting within his/her rights.

I wonder if Mr. Grard has a union? Most newspaper employees are unionized. The union can address whether the employer followed the proper disciplinary course or not. Otherwise, employees don't really have any rights unless they have a contract that spells them out.

snip
“He had an emotional reaction to this email and sent off a reply and he recognizes that it was a mistake – that it wasn't professional,” said Tom Bell, president of Grard's union, the Portland Newspaper Guild.

Bell continued to say that workers for the paper have a union contract that calls for “progressive discipline” which means that if someone makes a mistake, they are given a chance to rectify the situation before drastic action, such as termination, is taken. “The issue here is that we feel the company overreacted,” said Bell.
“For someone like Larry, who's 58, this is a one-way to poverty .