The Last Straw for Aero Engine

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The meeting lasted only ten minutes, since all those present quickly agreed that Tom Kinder should be fired. According to management, Kinder had caused the company numerous problems over the last eighteen months, and the incident that Saturday had been “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” Plant management believed it had rid itself of a poor employee, one the company had offered numerous opportunities for improvement. It seemed like an airtight case and one the union could not win if taken to arbitration. Tom Kinder had worked for the Aero Engine Company for fourteen years prior to his discharge. He was initially employed as an engine mechanic servicing heavy-duty diesel engines. For his first nine years with Aero Engine, he was considered a model employee by his supervisors and plant management. Kinder was also well liked by his fellow employees. His performance appraisals were always marked “exceptional,” and his personnel folder contained many commendation letters from customers and supervisors alike. Supervisor Mark Lee described Kinder as “devoted to his job of building and repairing engines.” Through company-sponsored training classes and courses taken at a local trade school, Kinder had acquired the knowledge and experience to build and repair specialty engines used in arctic oil exploration. The Aero Engine Company, with headquarters in the Midwest, was engaged primarily in the production and maintenance of specialty engines used in drilling, rapid growth in sales volume, number of products produced, and the size of its workforce since 1985. (At the time of Tom Kinder’s termination, the company employed about 1, 700 employees.) Aero Engine avoided hiring new personnel and then laying them off when they were no longer needed. Company policy stated that layoffs were to be avoided except in extreme circumstances. When heavy workloads arose, the natural

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