Saturday, June 23, 2012
EEOCDUMB
I really want my colleagues to try and wrap their brains around this one. The EEOC has taken it upon themselves to sue the Old Dominion Trucking Company for the discriminatory action of, get this, taking an avowed alcoholic off the highways. Alcoholism is a disease, they say, and, because of that, you cannot discriminate against people who possess it (never minding, of course, the fact that this same "discrimination" could potentially save torrents of lives down the road - no pun intended)..................................................................................And Old Dominion didn't even fire the guy. They simply gave him another job that doesn't require the putting of other people's lives at stake. I mean, yes, it was in fact a pay cut and all, but at least it was a job and to have these bureaucratic stooges down in Washington quite literally harass a responsible business like this is about as close to proof-positive as you can get that this country is effing screwed.
Sounds like it could be discrimination to me... absent any facts that showed he was a danger (drinking on the job). They could have told him he could get his old job back if he entered AA and stayed sober.
ReplyDeleteWould it not be discrimination if there was a test to see if someone had the gene for alcholism, and someone was fired for having the gene?
A person with a history of heavy drinking (knowing the recidivism rate of alcoholism) behind the wheel of multi-ton vehicle is a risk that is way too much to take. If this person had relapsed and killed other motorists in an accident the legal repercussions would have been absolutely devastating. The government is stupid.
ReplyDeleteAlcoholism is a behavior, first and foremost, regardless of genetics.
ReplyDeleteYou know, if it was any job other than driving a 20,000 pound (not even counting the load) death machine, I'd probably have some sympathy for the guy but this was just a flat-out disaster waiting to happen.
ReplyDeletePresent day America at its finest.
ReplyDeletePresent day America at its finest.
ReplyDeleteAn ignorant dmarks: Alcoholism is a behavior, first and foremost, regardless of genetics.
ReplyDeleteFrom WebMD... A new study links a gene to alcohol addiction -- backing up a long-recognized pattern showing that alcoholism runs in families.
The finding also provides evidence that an inborn high level of anxiety is part of this picture. The study appears in this week's issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.
Research has shown that alcohol addiction is a complex disease, with both genetics and a tendency toward anxiety playing "crucial roles", writes researcher Subhash C. Pandey, PhD, a psychiatrist with the University of Illinois at Chicago.
"Some 30% to 70% of alcoholics are reported to suffer from anxiety and depression" Pandey says in a news release. "Drinking is a way for these individuals to self-medicate".
La, La, La, lullaby WD.
ReplyDeleteWhat Old Dominion did was not discriminatory.
1) it removed a very dangerous potential from the road.
2) it covered it's own ass because if the dude had hit and killed somebody (or several people which is the more likely) individuals like you WD would be the first to have Old Dominions ass for being irresponsible. And rightly so if they were aware and chose to do nothing.
I do agree that it is well documented and generally accepted that alcoholism is an addiction as well as a disease.
I also agree that alcoholism is at least partly a disease but the only studies that are really definitive here are the ones that compare identical twins reared apart (this, in that families not only share genetics but a cultural component as well).
ReplyDeleteIt appears to me that the problem is defining alcoholism as a disability. Disease? OK. Genetic disease? OK, maybe. Disability? Maybe a stretch.
ReplyDeleteActually, Jerry, the only thing that really bothers me here is the driving (an 18-wheeler, no less) element. Have the dude work in the warehouse or something and I guess that that's what they ultimately offered.
ReplyDeleteWe have a problem now in Michigan, where medical marijuana is now legal. There's a special interest group that favors widespread drug abuse, and sees the medical marijuana thing is a stepping stone. They are now pushing strongly to make driving while stoned legal.
ReplyDeleteSpecial interest group that favors widespread drug abuse? Which group might that be?
DeleteYou don't know?
DeleteDriving while stone legally? I suspect, and I have not checked, that it is something more like drinking and driving. You can drink and drive legally as long as you are not over the legal limit of alcohol in your blood.
ReplyDelete"Rational" Nation: Special interest group that favors widespread drug abuse? Which group might that be?
ReplyDeleteThere isn't one. dmarks imagined it.
NORML is one, actually.
ReplyDeleteThey aren't.
ReplyDelete