Northeast Cartage and Recycling Solutions is a recycling plant. It is associated with Louis Cohen and Sons, 9 Fellows Ave., Hanover Twp. PA, phone (570) 823-0112, and both companies are owned by Frank Nockley and Angelo Medico. The director of operations for the plant, Al Gulitis, is the primary source of the hostile work environment of this plant. He forces the plant employees to work from 6 AM - 7PM daily, sometimes until 8 or 9PM. He does not allow employees to take scheduled breaks or lunches. He has hired numerous illegal Hispanic immigrants and treats them as subhuman. Due to the high stress environment he creates, the employees are often faced with ultimatums from their spouses such as "quit that job or I'm filing for divorce, " as Al demands that employees work full days on Saturdays as well as the grueling work week schedule, and the employees get to spend very little time with their families. One such employee, Dwayne Kennedy, quit his job despite having just had a baby, buying a new house and buying a car - it‘s that serious. Al denies employees permission to go to the doctor if they're sick, or one of their children or wife is sick and needs them. He forces employees to cancel their vacations at the last minute. He even asked one employee, my husband, to reschedule our wedding, stating the employee's fiancée (me) "should just try to understand and be a company woman!" Even when employees become stuck in a bind in regards to child care, he tells them "too bad, you'll have to figure something else out or have one of your neighbors watch them." My husband recently lost our source of transportation for our 8 year-old daughter and asked Al to let him leave at 4 PM during the week. My husband attempted to explain that there is no one else to pick her up, so he needs to leave to get her. Al continued to change the subject during this discussion, never giving my husband an actual answer. When my husband finally pushed the issue, Al told him that he would need to "let him go, " but asked that he stay on for the next two weeks so Al could finish his vacation. My husband stated he could NOT do this, as the issue with transportation for our daughter needed to be handled immediately, not two weeks from now. My husband was then immediately terminated.
Another employee has a very sick child that has been rushed to the ER on multiple occasions due to a bleed in his brain. Al has attempted to refuse to let this employee go to the hospital to be with his son. He has threatened to fire him after leaving anyway to go to the hospital. The employee's son is now scheduled to have surgery to correct the problem, and Al is refusing to let the employee take the time off to be there.
Al has fired people for going to the bathroom. He called a meeting and was screaming at the female employees that their "mothers raised fucking pigs" because he expected them to put their used feminine products in their pockets instead of throwing them in the garbage. There is very poor ventilation in the plant, and people often get sick due to the buildup of fumes.
In August of my husband was seriously injured at work when a glass bottle was kicked up by one of the machines and hit him in the eye. Al allowed him to go to the ER, but told him to tell the hospital that he got injured at home. Al insinuated that if my husband did not do this, Al would fire him. My husband had to see several eye specialists to correct the injury and his vision; however Al forced him to come back to work right upon discharge from the hospital. Al then refused to let him leave over the next several days to attend appointments with the specialists for follow-up.
The week prior to my husband being "let go, " he collapsed while at work and was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. It was found that he has a significant heart murmur with syncope, and his family doctor schedule an Echo and 24 hours on a heart monitor. Al wanted my husband to skip his medical appointments because Al was supposed to go hunting that week. Since letting my husband go, Al has now been telling everyone in the plant that my husband passing out was fake and that he planned that as a way out of the job. He has been verbally slandering my husband nonstop, and called Unemployment and told them numerous lies about my husband such as: he was harassing other employees; he is abusing drugs; his work performance was very poor; and he was never at work. NONE of these things are even remotely true. The plant was granted several new contracts with surrounding municipalities due to the speed, quality and efficiency of my husband's work. My husband was the only employee in the plant's workforce that knew how to operate the recyclable bailer, and he often found way to increase production. Al is now being spiteful and vicious in trying to prevent my husband from being able to collect unemployment, RIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS. And this is all because my husband's uncle, who was picking our daughter up from school, has gotten very ill from throat cancer and we can no longer rely on him for transportation.
Something needs to be done about the remaining employees in this plant. This is not the 1800's and as far as I know, slavery has long since been abolished. Al needs to be checked and put in his place or fired, as no one deserves to be treated the way he treats people for ANY reason. I hope someone can help in this matter.
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