A Ford employee says he lost his job after being accused of stealing a $1.95 cookie, only for the company to later realize he’d actually paid for it.
60-year-old Kurt Kromm had worked at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant for 11 years, but told Shifting Gears he was fired after the company believed security footage showed him taking a cookie from the break room without paying.
Age discrimination.
Unfair dismissal
They didn’t fire him for stealing the cookie. They fired him because he’s old and probably earning twice what a new hire who could do his job would earn. The cookie was just an excuse.
Every employer, big and small, has a collection of petty rules on the books that are only there to be enforced against people they want to get rid of “justifiably” and not have to pay unemployment.
I think unemployment is paid to the State while they are working, no?
This tactic goes by the lawful name of at will employment.
You don’t just fire a $200k worker over a $2 cookie without looking for a reason to fire them.
Why are employees expected to pay for cookies in the break room?
Oh right, capitalism. Human decency be damned.
Under socialism, employers must supply free cookies in breakrooms.
My employer offers free fruits in breakrooms. Life safers when you have low bloodsugar.
That coupled with other benefits like free gym, company paying half of any bicycle i buy and discounts with local massagers have made me healthier and i have turned down an job offer from better paying job because they had worse benefits.
Where do you work?
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Technically yes. The employees own the company, and part of the company expenses, it’s make sure the break room have free cookies.
Historically every job provided all workers a meal, often two if it was a long day. This didn’t stop being the norm until clocks and factories became common.
They just steal your paycheck instead lol
Cause capitalists arent interested in taking your tax money to enrich themselves either.
The manufacturer later offered him his job back and agreed to provide back pay for the time he’d spent out of work, but he chose to take a new job elsewhere.
60-year-old
That’s why. I guess Ford won’t have to pay him some retirement package.
There are 35-year-olds that have worked for Ford longer.
100% this is ‘we want to fire this guy because he made somebody one or two or three levels above him on the totem pole look really foolish’.
Its the same bullshit as ‘oh you don’t get your security deposit back because … we decided you scratched something, somewhere’.
Or as someone else here said, he was getting too close to retirement or some other kind of seniority/longevity-based benefit that the company didn’t want to pay out.
Yeah. If your company is looking that closely into your behavior, they are looking for an excuse instead of a reason.
Thats some fantastic labor law right there
Who puts cookies in the break room and expects you to pay for it.
It’s cookies.
They’re cheap.
Treat your workers.
Treat your colleagues.
Same people that expect YOU to work hard enough to generate millions in revenue while THEY take 99% of it.
If it ain’t in a vending machine, it should be free.
I have definitely seen vending machines at various office over the years.
Lolz. Public corporations don’t care about your well being. If there is an ROI on any action, it’s worth taking and if that means no cookies because it ensure the shareholders get a fraction of a percent return, then no cookies for you.
I’m working hard to leave my current corpo. They’re down to the “bring the dry pen back to get a new one” stage of bean counting. That’s a sinking ship to disembark from ASAP.
If large company needs to count bullshit like that, they are not in a healthy position.
Craziest shit is that has to cost way more than just buying an extra box of fucking pens
Last two companies I worked for treat their workers to a lot of goodies, like food, after work parties, stuff like that. Not everyone is that stingy. But of course, they only care in order to make workers happy to make more money for the company.
In the end, it’s all about the moolah.
Gotta milk every last cent out of us. Honestly the absurdity and cruelty only make the revolution come that much faster and if they are cruel enough we won’t even have any moral hangups about it (for those that would).
Just replace him with AI! That should work!
Should sue for defamation and damages
Wrongful termination for sure, idk about defamation. I think it’d be hard to argue being accused of stealing a cookie actually hurt your reputation in any meaningful way.
If the employee isn’t ready to retire, being fired for theft of company property is something that will absolutely affect their reputation.
Law suit territory. Time for a comfortable retirement.
I think Kromm should give them a first hand lesson in the riddle of steel…
Kromm is the best God, because he is the worst God.
Other Gods offer power, strength, abilities, riches…
Kromm?
Kromm offers nothing.
Yet if you please Kromm… you will already have all that you need.
Howez man if you’re going to use an Arnie meme in this context then use this:
For modern cars, it’s the riddle of aluminum
Seems like a slam dunk case. What a joke of a company. Hope they fire everyone who thought it was smart to fire this guy. Huge waste
Yeah the fire people committee will get right on firing themselves
Should buy a Komatsu D355A and a mig welder.
Should accept the job offer elsewhere and sue the fuck out of Ford for wrongful termination. It’s the only thing they understand.
lol for what?
The only damages are one week’s pay.
Union didn’t help him at all
Uhhh… It didn’t help him as much as it should have, but my understanding from watching a video about this yesterday is that he already got paid back for the time after he was fired because of the union. So, it did help him some.
UAW is an awful organization that’s basically a “good old boy”'s club. Most reps are just a revolving door of former execs from the Big 3 anyway who work with their buddies to keep workers at bay.
Getting off topic but I’m all for increasing Union membership in this country, but think we also need to discuss the rot that’s in the ones that do exist.
Reading the best democracy money can Buy was a really good read
But the executives can get away with making decisions that kill innocent people to save a few bucks.
Making short-sighted decisions that fails, lays off 8,000 employees, gets a govt bail out, flies home on the corporate jets, uses the bailout money to give a huge bonus and buy a new corporate jet
But the executives can get away with stealing an employee’s pension that he actually earned.
They get away with both, and plenty more
Ford is really kicking ass lately. In a bad way
The mental image i got is that they are kicking their own ass using a broken leg. Pretty accurate if you ask me - it hurts doubly every time you do it.
when has ford ever been the good guy
I didn’t say they were… but the company has been successful in the past
