Another example of how bad things have gotten

I promise to have a cheery Christmas post in the next few days, but I can't ignore the not-so-merry news my parents got today and its relevance to the detrimental state of the American workforce.

After a five-month battle with his former employer over a month's unemployment compensation, my dad got final word today from the state unemployment agency that he was terminated with just cause last August and is therefore not eligible for unemployment. The company, CMC Impact Metals, alleges that Dad attempted to lift an unbalanced load with a crane, which was supposedly his second serious offense in a week. So they fired him. My dad says that after 10 hours on night-turn without a lunch break, he engaged the crane in the wrong direction and promptly corrected it. Not only did Dad finish his shift without any mention of the incident by the boss who had earlier berated him for some minor infraction, but the next day -- the first day of his vacation -- he was called into the plant and fired without a single opportunity to speak on his own behalf.

I don't think anyone who reads this needs a description of my dad to know the kind of man and worker that he is. If this were a hypothetical story, we would be rolling with laughter at the idea of Ron Gianoglio getting fired from a job. I'd have been less surprised to hear the Pope got fired. But in a world in which workers are earning the same wages they made when Reagan was in office, and former union members are seen as dangerous threats in non-union shops, things like work ethic, courtesy, leadership, safety, integrity, and respect are not the qualities that determine an employee's value.

If that weren't bad enough, Dad was then denied unemployment and was forced to spend months organizing paperwork and documentation for an appeal hearing that was held via conference call. After that "hearing," Dad was confident that his testimony was far more convincing and conclusive than what was presented by the company's HR director, who hadn't even fulfilled all of her paperwork requirements prior to the hearing. In fact, he described his testimony as almost overwhelming compared to what the company rep had to say. But in a he-said-they-said case, the individual with no power, no advocate, no representation, and no money behind him can't even find assistance with the government agency that is supposed to help him. The word of a man with no other terminations on his 35-year employment record, otherwise excellent employee evaluations, and a new job at the time of the hearing is somehow still not good enough.

I shudder to think what this means for the other 99.9 percent of workers who don't share my Dad's impeccable standards but are still decent, hard-working people. What chance do they have of a fair shot in a country with an unemployment rate that is spiking so fast that the government will deny benefits to whoever it can in an effort to reduce the appearance of joblessness? Which is exactly what's going on. With companies and factories going under faster than the Titanic, the government is not about to add a worker to the rolls who lost his job due to even the merest perception of personal responsibility. And the only apt description for this state of affairs is pathetic. No one deserves this kind of treatment, least of all workers who quite literally can't afford to be political casualties. And more than anything, I wish my dad weren't one of the victims.