NEW YORK (AP) – A printer in Maryland saw the photo on Twitter late on Wednesday: an employee wandering the halls of the United States Capitol with a company badge hanging around his neck. He was fired the next day.
Others are facing similar repercussions at work for their participation in Wednesday’s riot at the US Capitol. Some entrepreneurs are being destroyed on social media and their businesses boycotted, while ordinary employees of other companies have been laid off.
Navistar Direct Marketing, a printing company, declined to name the worker, but said it could not offer jobs to people “who demonstrate dangerous behavior that endangers the health and safety of others.”
More than 90 people have been arrested since Wednesday, when supporters of President Donald Trump interrupted lawmakers when they met to confirm the results of the Electoral College and the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. People on social media have been trying to identify protesters photographed or filmed on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, putting pressure on companies that employ them to fire them.
At a data analytics firm in the suburbs of Chicago, the employee in question was the chief boss. Cogensia fired CEO Bradley Rukstales on Friday night for his participation in the riot.
“This decision was made because Rukstales’ actions were inconsistent with Cogensia’s core values,” said newly appointed CEO Joel Schiltz in a statement. “Cogensia condemns what happened at the United States Capitol on Wednesday, and we intend to continue to embrace the values of integrity, diversity and transparency in our business operations, and we expect all employees to embrace those values as well.”
Rukstales, who was arrested for illegal entry, said a local CBS news channel that he had entered the Capitol and apologized for his role in the events. Calls and emails to Rukstales were not returned.
An occupational therapist at the Cleveland school resigned from the district after his supposed involvement in the riot. A spokeswoman for a fire department near Orlando, Fla., Said one of her firefighters was being investigated for her participation. Fireman Andy Williams of the Sanford Fire Department has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome, said spokeswoman Bianca Gillett.
Most private employers can fire workers for participating in protests, as First Amendment rights only prohibit people from being punished by the government for their speech, not by a private employer, said Susan Kline, a labor and employment attorney at the law firm. Faegre Drinker law firm in Indianapolis.
There are a few exceptions: those who work for the government may be more legally protected, as are many union workers, who usually have a contract listing the reasons why they could be fired. And some states may have laws that protect workers’ freedom of expression.
But “what people did at Capitol on Wednesday were riots, not protests,” said Aaron Holt, a labor lawyer at the law firm Cozen O’Connor. “When someone violates the law, it will almost never be protected, and a private employer will have the right to discipline or take action in response to that, which can go against their core values.”
Small businesses are also facing adverse reactions on online review sites like Yelp, which flagged at least 20 companies for unusual review activities related to Wednesday’s riots.
One company, Becky’s Flowers in Midland, Texas, is owned by Jenny Cudd, a former mayoral candidate who posted a video on Facebook bragging about breaking into the office of Mayor Nancy Pelosi. On Friday, Cudd’s florist was inundated with dozens of star ratings on which she was called a domestic traitor and terrorist, along with photos of her inside the Capitol.
Cudd later said in a video message to the Associated Press that she did not personally go to Pelosi’s office or see people break down the door, and that when she said “we”, she meant everyone on Capitol Hill. She said she did nothing violent or destroyed any property.
“I walked in through an open door on the Capitol along with several hundred other people,” said Cudd.
She added that she had “received several death threats along with thousands of reviews from a star across the country, from people who have never been to my company.”
Yelp flagged companies for unusual review activity after less notorious but still controversial events. Reviewers protested on the Yelp page of The Red Hen restaurant in Virginia after he expelled former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders since its establishment a few years ago. And commentators from the left and right bombarded the Big Apple Pizza Yelp page with political beliefs after former President Barack Obama was enthusiastically embraced by a customer there.
Social media denounced people for their involvement in activities outside the workplace, putting them in trouble with their employers. In 2017, after a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, many posted photos on social media of those who participated, leading in some cases to their resignation.
In Louisiana, customers said they would boycott the supermarket chain Rouses Market after retired owner Donald Rouse was shown in a photo in Wednesday’s riot. Rouse said in an email statement that he attended the rally as a supporter of the president, but left before the violence started.
“I am horrified by the violence and destruction that we saw yesterday and the pain this has caused so many people,” said Rouse. “Our country desperately needs to come together for healing, and I will do everything I can to be part of that process.”
Krewe of Red Beans, the group that organizes fashion shows, posted on Instagram that it would return $ 20,000 in donations it received from the market.
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Associated Press writers Don Babwin in Chicago and Jake Bleiberg in Dallas and investigative researcher Randy Herschaft in New York contributed to this report.