Posted on 09/19/2001 7:37:25 AM PDT by killjoy
JON WAY/STAFF PHOTO
The NCCI building in Boca Raton increased security after receiving threats Monday. News reports had said the company wouldn?t allow an employee to display an American flag.
A prominent Boca Raton company has had to beef up security after news reports about a policy banning flags in the workplace caused a nationwide furor. The company, National Council of Compensation Insurance Holdings Inc., located in the Peninsula Corporate Complex off Congress Avenue, rescinded the policy Monday and actually handed out flags and red-white-and-blue lapel pins to employees coming to work that morning.
?But they [people who objected to the original policy] don?t want to hear it,? said company spokesman Michael Bullard. ?They don?t want to listen to me,? he added, explaining that he tried to tell hundreds of phone callers that the firm had dropped the flag ban. ?Oh my God,? Bullard said. ?The company has received hundreds of telephone calls and thousands of e-mails,? many of them, ?nasty, vituperative and even threatening.? He said people who answered telephone calls at the company Monday were threatened.
The ban caused anger among workers during the weekend. And on Monday, The News also received telephone calls and e-mails - one from as far away as Ohio - complaining about the firm?s policy.
NCCI issued a news release on Monday saying it had changed its position on flags in the workplace. President and CEO Bill Schrempt met with employees and issued a personal apology.
The change came three days after Schrempt sent a memo to NCCI?s 850 employees saying that company policy prohibits flags in the workplace. Bullard said the firm had considered the American flag to be a political emblem, and the company?s policy banning ?religious and political? symbols in the workplace was intended to protect its employees from divisive partisan discussions.
Instead, the ban has apparently put workers in harm?s way, requiring the company to hire additional security officers, ?out of concern for the safety of employees.? After news reports circulated that the company, which compiles workers compensation insurance data, had removed 10 flags from employee cubicles Friday, management met over the weekend and decided to lift its ban, Bullard said. ?I was here for 13 hours on Sunday, answering calls and sending e-mails.? Bullard said he could not comment on a report that an employee was suspended when she refused to remove the patriotic symbol.
Because flags are in short supply in the area following last week?s terrorist attacks in Washington and New York, the company could not find any to purchase. So, it printed 2,000 paper flags, two per 81/2-by-11 sheet of paper, that employees could pin to their cubicles.
?We had flags when they came in [Monday] morning if they wanted them, as well as red-white-and-blue lapel pins,? Bullard said, adding that about 1,000 of the flags were handed out to workers.
When Schrempt met with employees to explain the policy change Monday, he apologized for not allowing them to display a flag in their work space on Friday, which President George W. Bush had declared a day of remembrance for the victims of last week?s terrorist attacks.
Management changed its long-standing position because of employee complaints and after learning that Gov. Jeb Bush had urged Floridians to fly an American flag, Bullard said.
?I think the feeling is simply, ?Let?s not fight and let?s support our country,?? said Enrique Alamo, a computer programmer.
But as NCCI tried to return to business as usual Monday, news of the flag ban circulated on the Internet and created a backlash from Americans who perceived the company as being unpatriotic.
A few protesters held signs outside its Boca Raton headquarters Monday morning, but they were gone by the afternoon.
?This has been a major problem for us in terms of getting back to business,? Bullard said.
On Saturday, Gov. Bush called on homeowners associations to allow residents to fly the American flag despite restrictions against doing so in some communities. He also said he supported amending existing laws to clarify a homeowner?s right to fly Old Glory.
?We will present this to the Legislature. ... It will probably pass pretty close to unanimous,? Bush said Monday. ?And we?ll have a clearer definition of what a flag can look like in a homeowners association.?
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
My dear brother and sister FReepers,
At this, of all times in my lifetime, I would like nothing more than to be able to read these threads and reply to them. I have much I would like to say.
BUT, I cannot!
Why?
Because I am trying hard to raise the finances needed to keep FreeRepublic up and running so that we can continue to share valuable information and respond to it.
I beg you, if you have not yet donated to FreeRepublic this quarter, do so now!
If you have already donated, THANK YOU VERY MUCH AND GOD BLESS YOU, please ping your friends, and FReep on...!
I realize you are giving to lots of Relief efforts and I encourage you to do so. But we need to help FR too. Where would we be right now without it?
If you have no money, please come and bump the Fundraiser Thread.
I would really like to reach our goal quickly so that I and the rest of the dedicated FReepers who are working the Fundraiser Threads can participate in what is undeniably the most important time in FreeRepublic's history.
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This news story should be archived, and then should be mailed ASAP to ANY further US companies, college librarians or whomever that try to pull this kind of Politically Correct, anti-American stunt in the days, weeks and years to come.
They will stop it upon seeing this test case, and I don't mean maybe.
If anything, these managers and executives do not want their companies to go bankrupt and in turn, for them to lose their SUVs, kids' college education, trips to Cabo San Lucas, and easy, gated- community livin'.
How asinine, foolish, idiotic and just plain stupid to publicly make such statements. Don't these Muslim firefighers know who will be watching their backs in the next big blaze?
I don't condone violence against American Muslims, but THEY ARE NOT helping themselves here. They should be out on the street condemning Infidel bin Laden to hell. Instead, they're whining about the American flag offending them. Where do we get these people from?
But, these short-term outrages are just that ... short-term. The evil socialists that occupy the positions to make these un-American decisions remain in place. When things calm down, they'll just return to their wicked ways. They've got to be rooted out and destroyed -- treated like the weeds they are.
Why in the world does he stay here in the United States then ?
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI issued a warning to firefighters across the country Tuesday that terrorists could hijack their trucks and use them as bombs
The FBI warning said fire and emergency services vehicles could be stolen by terrorist groups and turned into rolling bombs aimed at military bases or other government installations.
The FBI asked fire departments to review the security of their stations and vehicles. If a vehicle is stolen, stations were asked to immediately notify the FBI.
The FBI did not say there was any specific and credible threat that caused it to issue the warning.
One official said the FBI is exercising "an abundance of caution" and is passing on all information it is gleaning from interviews and tips, "regardless of the reliability of the source."
Some firefighters told CNN their vehicles -- even those carrying patients -- have been stopped and searched upon entering medical facilities.
The warning was sent by the FBI to the National Volunteer Fire Council and the International Association of Fire Chiefs, which passed it on to local fire departments.
Hey! One of those e-mails came from an ex-pat in Austria! ;)
The question is where do we send them?
As for the time yesterday is too late.
I'll just post the link and two paragraphs since it has that copyright paragraph at the bottom.
Two Miami-Dade firefighters refuse to ride on truck with flag
MIAMI (AP) -- Two Miami-Dade County firefighters refused to ride on a fire engine carrying the American flag, saying Old Glory was offensive, officials said Wednesday.
The two firefighters, one an engine driver and the other a firefighter, showed up for work Saturday morning, saw the flag on the truck and refused to ride, telling crew members that the flag represented oppression, said Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue spokesman Lt. Louie Fernandez. (click title above for full story)
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