Chapel Hill – Two recently fired town sanitation workers and their supporters asked the Chapel Hill Town Council Monday night to rescind the decision to fire the men and immediately reinstate them.
Kerry Bigelow and Clyde Clark and have filed a grievance against the town and a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after being fired from their jobs last month.
At Monday’s council meeting at Town Hall, local NAACP chapter president Michelle Laws said she believes the case is not an isolated incident.
“We believe that Mr. Clark and Mr. Bigelow’s case is evidence of a larger, more systemic issue of unjust treatment and retaliation toward our public workers that has been tolerated and allowed to go unsanctioned – that has been tolerated for quite some time,†she said.
Clark, Bigelow and their supporters also questioned a report by Capital Associated Industries, a firm hired by the town to investigate complaints about the two, charging that the company has a history of being used to fight unions and organizing rights for public employees.
Council member Sally Greene and Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt both reiterated their support of collective bargaining for public employees and called for a report on the town’s relationship with the company.
Lawyer Al McSurely, who is representing Bigelow and Clark, said they are committed to a long fight.
“I’ve told my clients they should be prepared for the town to spend unlimited funds to make their point in the courts,†McSurely said. “Our side doesn’t have unlimited funds. But we do have unlimited spirit, unlimited bodies and unlimited commitment. And we’ll go to the Supreme Court with it. I look forward to it.â€
– Staff Reports
It seems that these two men and their supporters are unwilling to believe and will call into question any opinion that differs from their own. An outside firm was hired to investigate, but apparently nobody other than themselves can get it right. The most ridiculous statement in the whole article is the insinuation that this could ever be a Supreme Court case. This is likely a basic, simple matter made out to be more than it is by a newspaper that conveniently does not mention the reason these men were fired, a lawyer eager to get some time in the spotlight (hence the sights being set on the Supreme Court), and a pair of men eager to blame someone else rather than admit to their own shortcomings. Litigiousness meets laziness meets the search for financial gain, also known as, America.