A Florida man has reportedly been sacked by Daniels Manufacturing Corp. (DMC), a maker of aircraft and aerospace tools, after speaking to a news outlet about his boss warning of job cuts if Joe Biden is elected president.
The man, Stan Smith, told Orlando’s NBC affiliate (WESH 2 News) that he was fired Thursday, presumably because DMC President George Daniels didn’t like his comments to the station earlier this week. Smith told WESH on Oct. 19 that a letter from Daniels saying permanent layoffs would likely be necessary in the event Biden wins the Nov. 3 election was inappropriate.
“It’s not about intimidating, it’s about everybody has a choice to make their own decision,” Smith said in the interview, apparently as he was leaving work. “I don’t feel like it was correct to do something like that.”
Daniels’ letter, which was put into envelopes containing worker pay stubs earlier this month, said, “If (President) Trump and the Republicans win the election, DMC will hopefully be able to continue operating, more or less as it has been operating lately. However, if Biden and the Democrats win, DMC could be forced to begin permanent layoffs in late 2020 and-or early 2021.”
Smith reportedly said he was planning to quit after receiving the letter, but he was instead fired. He has hired a lawyer to sue DMC on his behalf. The lawyer, Richard Celler, said evidence clearly shows that Daniels was trying to influence his employees’ votes. “We are confident that this employer not only violated federal and state law, but also illegally terminated our client,” he added.
Daniels told WESH that he’s been giving similar letters to workers for many years, informing his employees of election implications for the company, and he believes it’s his duty to tell workers of possible job consequences.
DMC has a Trump flag on the flagpole outside its Orlando headquarters. Daniels has donated more than $600,000 to the Trump campaign and other Republican causes in the current election cycle, according to contribution records.
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