Tom writes:

>Wherever you heard the info from originally, I would insist to that
>person that either they tell you where they heard it from or you were
>going to march *them* to the door. Do that with each person named. The
>moment you get a denial, call the police in. It's a federal offense to
>make a threat against a computer system. 
>
>Anyway, how many operators are we talking about?

Good idea, I'll pass it on to my boss.  We have about 20 operators.

>You're in Ohio, I don't know if that is an "Employment at the
>convenience of the Employer" state. Georgia is. In Georgia, you could
>simply replace *all* the operators. You don't have to give a reason. By
>merely giving as an answer that it's no longer convenient, they would
>have no recourse. 

Ohio is an "Employed at will" state, which is basically the same thing 
as Georgia.  In the absence of a contract, all employess are employed 
at the will of the employer and may be discharged at any time for any 
or no reason.  I know this is the case here at our plant, since the 
owner has in the past came in and fired everyone in sight because he 
felt like it.

However, while the management likes to think that these operators are 
non-skilled, they in fact, do learn considerable skills and "craft 
knowledge" while here, as evidenced by the fact that longer term 
employees produce much more quality and quantity product than the 
newer employees.  So, while it may be convenient for us to fire 
everyone and start over, our customers may decide not to wait for 
the new employees to be trained and go to our competitors.


Jim Phillips                            Manager of Information Systems
Voice: (330) 527-2124                   Therm-O-Link, Inc.
  Fax: (330) 527-2123                   PO Box 285; 10513 Freedom St.
Email: [log in to unmask]       Garrettsville, Ohio  44231