There is a special place in h*l for people that fire you for no exact reason two weeks before Christmas. I am, or rather I was a truck driver. I had just began my illustrious career driving for Swift Transportation. I started 10/6/09, and was fired based on biased hearsay on 12/13.
I had been driving with one minor incident on my record, nothing of a firing nature, not even a write up. I had gone to a priority account, everyone has heard of Target. I was a van-hauler, and also the favorite of the supervisor. My driver manager would hound me at every chance he got, because he was no longer the baby on the account, or so everyone claimed. I am not an openly gay man, because in the trucking industry it can be a very dangerous thing. My supervisor knew, and a few people outside of work as well.
That's when I met the lesbian, for all intensive purposes I'll just say her name is Butch. She whined and complained about having to haul any loads, and would always get lost. More or less out of irritation I took her under my wing, and showed her the ropes. I never realized how this would turn around and bite me in the a*.
As a driver on the Target account you need to be able to pull 9-10,000 miles a month, or at least 2700 miles a week. If you cannot do that, you aren't a worthwhile asset. Everyone has to pull their weight, because every load is a JIT load. (Just in time) You have a window in which the loads are supposed to be picked up and dropped off and there is no excuse for being late.
Ok getting closer to the problem. A few months pass, I'm picking up the slack pulling more loads than necessary or possible really, and I'm getting tired. I am then told by my peers that Butch is going around telling everyone that I'm gay, and that's not ok. I kept an eye on this and filed a sexual harassment report. Everyone at my terminal or at least most of the drivers I knew, had known that my supervisors, supervisor is/was incredibly homophobic.in his posturing et cetera. I know this just based on some of the jokes he would tell, and the way he became overly macho around other men... Compensating I don't know.
My supervisor had told me that she was going to make me a permanent driver after the Christmas rush, meaning I had proven myself. I was hauling 11,500 miles a month. I had also rewritten a lot of the directions and found better ways to get to most of the stores in NYC. This is where things get weird; being that I was the favorite and my supervisor was becoming my fag-hag she would tell me things, that really shouldn't be told to anyone that isn't management. They were putting Butch on the chop-block, for too many lates and complaining about loads. Most of which I had taken and covered.
Two day's later I was given a call by my Driver Manager, and was asked to go to the terminal in Syracuse to pick up some office supplies. I do so thinking nothing of it, I go into the office and get called into the terminal managers office. Alright, so I might have thought I was going to be told I was doing a good job, or congratulated on my year of service to swift. No such thing. The conversation was simple. Clean out your truck, as of now you are being terminated.
I called swift 10-15 times for a report for my sexual harassment claim, and in conjunction with wanting my termination papers. Mind you this was over a period of 7 months. I finally received such papers a week ago 5/1. The termination paper says, I've been released from work, but not laid off. Yet it doesn't state a reason. The Sexual Harassment report stated that nothing was found to prove my claim. Yet here I sit. I've been black listed in the trucking community, I cannot get a job. My dac report states that I have a company policy violation... Whatever that means. And my career is ruined. I'm 23 years old, and I spent 10,000 dollars on an education to be a Class-A driver. I have applied to every company known to gods-green-earth, and nothing.
So in closing I feel my constitutional rights have been violated, and laws were broken regarding the safe guarding of my orientation. I seek retribution for the mental harm this has caused me, and for ruining my career. I could have easily driven another 40 years. It'd also be nice to have my d*n tuition paid back since no one will hire me.
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