3 men who discovered bomb say they later lost jobs

[OmahaBlueDog]

Source: AP/ Yahoo News

SPOKANE, Wash. – Three cleanup workers who were hailed as heroes after finding a live bomb along the route of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade said they later lost their temporary jobs after supervisors questioned their handling of the situation.

The men were employed by Labor Ready and doing temporary work for the Spokane Public Facilities District when they found a backpack containing the bomb about an hour before the scheduled start of the Jan. 17 parade.

They alerted police, who were able to defuse the device.

"For the first two days, basically all we did was get chewed out," worker Mark Steiner told Spokane television station KHQ. "We did this wrong. We did that wrong. I don't know what you consider calling 911 wrong after two minutes after we found it."



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_mlk_parade_explosive_fired

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Mrs. OBD's comment: "So, what white supremacist runs Labor Ready?"

[brewens]

1. Maybe they were supposed to call their supervisor first? Then

he checks it out and calls 911 and takes credit?
Sounds like that temp agency need to train their guys to not mess with anything suspicious like that. Just call 911 and get away from it, and warn anyone else getting near until the cops show up.

[gateley]

9. And that could be one of those situations where where the supervisor checks it

out the situation, says nah, looks good to me, then ka-boom!

I think the guys did the right thing - it's what I'd want my employees to do -- if it was a false alarm, so be it.

Labor Ready needs to be taken to task.

[Demeter]

2. Just goes to show

No good deed goes unpunished in Corporate America.

[hughee99]

3. The Spokane Public Facilities District is "corporate america"? n/t

[OmahaBlueDog]

5. The workers were temps from Labor Ready.

[hughee99]

8. It sounds like their temp boss from the public works district was the one

who chewed them out.

[Twinguard]

13. Exactly.

They were temps, and their job that day was cleaning up along the parade route, specifically emptying garbage cans. They did the right thing by reporting the suspicious backpack, but the local news (I live in Spokane) is blowing this way out of proportion. They are trying to build these workers up as heroes that were disgraced. They weren't fired. Their temporary job was done and they can go get another temp job whenever they want. My understanding is they got an earful from their boss because instead of doing their job, they waited around for accolades and praise instead of continuing their job after the authorities had the situation in hand.

[Demeter]

6. EVERYTHING Is Corporate America Now

Pay attention!

[JackInGreen]

4. I worked

at the corperate offices for about a year, and though my most direct supervisor was an old tech that was fantastic (if stern, love them stern bosses), a better part of the programmers and consultants are quite conservative (a few ex military from the local army base, and many of the women in the collections and billing departments were army wives). There were relatively consistent jokes about what would get someone let go, and at one time there was the implication that if any of the men I knew KNEW someones political affiliation and found it 'Liberal', it may be used against them.

[notadmblnd]

7. maybe what they did wrong was- finding the bag?

[gateley]

10. Oooh -- that's a thought, too. nt

[EC]

11. That was the only likely prospect I could see

Why else would they be upset that the police were called?

[RC]

12. Fired, huh? I'd be looking for a connection between the bomb and

the whoever fired them or had them fired.

[sulphurdunn]

14. This is complete bullshit.

How were they to know there was a bomb in the backpack? Apparently discovering such a thing constitutes "messing around" with a bomb. So, I suppose they should have let it lie and called their supervisor, who would have asked his supervisor, who would have needed to call corporate headquarters that would probably have gotten back to him later that day to tell him not to bother the police only to be informed that the a bomb had been in the pack at which time the corporate honcho would have launched a cover up of his company's involvement by blaming and then firing the three temps for not reporting the "suspicious" backpack and...Bottom line: These guys most likely saved some people's lives. They should be treated like heroes, not deadbeats. But I forgot. They're expendables.

[AngryAmish]

15. To become a supervisor at any temp agency one MUST complete a 18 month bomb disposal course

Only then can you do six months at Quantico with the FBI and ATF, then, and only then, can you tell people how to sweep up after a street festival.

WTF?