The recent immigration rallies have been quite interesting for many reasons.  One that I have noticed is that many people just attend and expect no consequences for cutting school and skipping work.  Free speech trumps the normal rules, in their minds.

Well, a local painting company decided differently.  In a move that spurred a union grievance, Laitala Enterprises fired the 17 (some say 19) workers for violation of company policy when they left work to attend a rally in downtown Seattle.

Boss says painters walked off job

Attending Monday’s immigration rally in downtown Seattle cost about 20 painters — all of them Latino — their jobs.

The painters left work for Laitala Enterprises in a Fife subdivision two hours early to go to the march that was attended by about 30,000 demonstrators as Congress considers immigration reforms.

"We weren’t going to let 17 people leave early for basically no excused absence," Monroe-based home-painting contractor Terry Laitala told The Seattle Times. "We let people leave early if their family is sick," he said. "They didn’t have a reason. I mean, they did, but none that fit into our policy."

Laitala said the workers were fired for breaking company rules.

The workers’ union didn’t agree on the number of painters fired. It said 19 painters were dismissed.

On Wednesday, the union filed a grievance after Laitala refused to reinstate them, said Jeff Kelley, an organizer for District Council No. 5 of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.

A couple things occurred to me.  First, once again I have to grumble how much I hate unions that help people recover form their own actions, as opposed to their historical mission to protect people from abuses by the company.  These people left early, they should deal with the consequences, right?

Nope.  This quote from the article illustrates this point.

Both Laitala and Duran said that the workers weren’t warned what consequences they faced if they left work early.

No offense, but duh!  Did they expect a raise?  Is it really necessary to say if you leave for no reason you may lose your job?  Would not a reasonable person already expect that?  Apparently not, we are supposed to see them as victims.  I frankly expect the union to prevail and the workers to get their jobs back.

One other troubling issue.

As for their legal status, Laitala said the company hires only workers who present proper documents. The workers themselves, though, said only some of them are here legally.(emphasis added)

These two comments are obviously incompatible.  Either Laitala hired illegals, or the illegal workers had faked documents.

Still think there is not a problem with the immigration laws? 

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