My Sons Story of Employer Harassment After Joining the Army National Guard

This is my son Kenny's story. I feel it is a story worth telling. Since my son is still at boot camp in Ft. Sill, Oklahoma I feel compelled to write it for him. I think most American's will be as outraged as I am on how my son has been treated. Maybe I am naive but I truly thought that employers supported our young men and women in the military. After talking with other Military families, I have found out that Kenny's story is being played out over and over across our country.

Kenny started working for Kroger grocery store approximately one year ago at the age of 16. During that time he has never been written up or been in trouble. He rarely calls in sick (a major feat for a teenager) and is never late. The older cashier's always comment to me how much they love working with my son. He also attends a special school program majoring in Criminal Justice (paramilitary program) at the local junior college for his last 2 years of high school. For years Kenny has talked of joining the military which as a selfish mother I tried desperately to talk him out of. This spring he begged his father and I to let him join early and go to boot camp this summer and then finish high school when he returns in late August. His father and I finally gave in as we knew this had been a life long dream of his.

He immediately informed his employer that he had joined the Army National Guard and would be leaving for boot camp after the school year. He gave them almost 2 months notice. As soon as they were informed the harassment started. Because he joined early he had to have one weekend off work to attend drill weekend. His employer was very upset. When he returned from drill weekend the harassment accelerated. Other managers and supervisors started following him at work and telling him to "just quit" He would come home from work so stressed and humiliated. They told him over and over there was simply no reason to stay working there since he had joined the Army. We informed his recruiter who went to talk to Kenny's employer. He informed them that under they could not pressure Kenny to quit and that they had to hold his job until he returns in Aug. Still the harassment continued. It got so bad that he filed a complaint with his Union Rep. That also did no good and we could never get the Union Rep to return Kenny's calls to see what if anything had been done.

Then his employer started harassing me. First I got a phone call from the scheduling supervisor asking me to tell Kenny to quit his job. I told the woman I absolutely would not tell my son to quit his job as he was not raised that way. She emphasized over and over how silly it was for Kenny to continue his job there. I told her I saw nothing "silly" about it as he still needs his job when he returns from boot camp. After that my husband was so enraged that he went to the store and talked to the supervisor himself. He told them to stop harassing Kenny and that we would not advise him to quit his job.

Kenny finally left for boot camp and we thought the battle with the employer was over. After being gone for 7 weeks I got a call from the same supervisor asking for Kenny. I told her that she knew Kenny was attending boot camp so why would she call for him? She replied that he had not reported for work and hung up on me. Not reported for work?!! I was shocked. They had known for weeks and weeks that he was leaving!! And if they thought he was still in Ohio why did they wait 7 weeks to call?

Two days later I received a registered letter from the grocery stores corporate headquarters stating that unless Kenny contacted them within 48 hours he would be terminated for abandoning his employment. Once again I was in shock. I called the person who signed the letter at the corporate office. She informed me that they had no idea Kenny had left for boot camp and their opinion was that he quit his job. So then I started explaining to her that Kenny was in the Army National Guard and was attending boot camp. She still insisted they were never informed that he was leaving. I asked her why Kroger would not support my son in the military and that they should be ashamed of themselves. She told me she would have the store manager call me and refused to talk anymore.

Within an hour the store manager called me. He admitted that he knew Kenny was leaving (which is in direct opposition to what the supervisor and corporate office told me) but insisted he never received Kenny's Military papers that he was actually leaving for boot camp. I told him that was an outright lie as Kenny had submitted his papers months ago. He insisted they never got them. He also said that Kenny's recruiter had never come to the store to talk to them. I then asked him if he was accusing a soldier of lying. He said yes. He then went on to tell me what a bad employee Kenny had been. I asked him if Kenny had ever been written up? He said no. I told him they were making excuses to hide their own bad behavior by not supporting our men and women in the military. I also informed him that I had spoken to another employee there that was also being harassed for joining the military. He insisted she was also a "bad employee" I ended our conversation by telling him that they will have to fire Kenny but we will not let him quit. Obviously since Kenny is still attending boot camp there is no way he can refute the charges against him. I told his manager Kenny would not return home until 08/25/07.

Since writing this article I have received yet another certified letter from Kroger Corporate office. This letter states that unless Kenny contacts them within 72 hours upon receipt of this letter, he will again be terminated as a "voluntary quit" I feel sure this second registered letter came as they know Kenny will not be home until 08/25/07 so cannot respond to their letter. I hate for my son to have to come home to this mess after going through months of grueling work to get through boot camp. Upon his return I will have to be the one to tell him that he was terminated from his employer while trying to serve his country.

Right now we have a shortage of soldiers for our country. Each and every one of them should be fully supported by their employers while they make sure that we continue to enjoy the freedoms we love. I made the sacrifice of handing my son over to the Army, so I think Kroger could at least treat my son with the respect and dignity he deserves.