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Friday the 14th of July, 2006

Discrimination in Action - Don’t Shop Edgar’s Bakery!

Pass this along to everyone you know if you live here in Birmingham.  This is blatenly wrong!

Today (Thursday, July 13, 2006) a friend of mine, Charlie Mollica, was fired from an executive management position with Edgar’s Bakeries because he is gay. The official reason Edgar’s gave was job performance but I ask you to consider this sequence of events.

Prior to coming to work for Edgar’s Bakeries, Charlie worked in management at the Bruno’s HQ for 26 years. One of Edgar’s co-owners, Terry Smith, actively recruited Charlie for 9 years before Charlie consented to come to work for Edgar’s. A couple of weeks ago Terry and his wife Dottie (the other co-owner) called Charlie in for a conference to discuss a rumor they had heard about him. You guessed it, they heard he was gay. Charlie did not deny the accusation. Terry and Dottie Smith responded with outrage and indignation and told Charlie he had deceived and tricked them and further, that his “chosen lifestyle” violated their Christian principles. To add insult to injury, they had a church elder come into the office to pray over him and ask God to heal him from his affliction. Also, Dottie Smith has been openly hostile toward Charlie since finding out that he way gay where she had been very congenial prior.

Then today, they (Terry and Dottie) called Charlie into the office when he is off on vacation to inform him he is being let go due to performance issues. Never mind that Charlie had not prior to today been informed that there were any performance issues and that no specifics were offered as to what those performance issues were. He was given no severance either. They simply asked him to clean out his desk and get out.

Charlie has, at the insistence of many friends, sought legal advice and his attorney assures him he has a very strong case. In the meantime, Charlie is out of a job and needs your thoughts, prayers, positive energy (whatever your mantra may be) and especially job leads! Charlie is updating his resume and will be forwarding a copy to me as soon as possible so if you have any leads, connections, thoughts, ideas, etc., please let me know and I’ll forward his resume along to you.

But, further, if you shop at Edgar’s Bakery I implore you to:

1. Stop shopping at Edgar’s!

2. Let Edgar’s know why. A company’s bad behavior cannot be changed solely by hitting them in the pocket book; they have to know why they are being hit in the pocket book. They also have to know that their customers are outraged by their behavior and will not tolerate it. This kind of discrimination does not just hurt Charlie, it hurts us all. The contact information for Edgar’s Bakery is:

Terry & Dottie Smith
499 Southgate Drive
Pelham, AL 35124

Phone: 205.987.0790
Fax: 205.987.8226
E-mail:

Additionally, whether you shop at Edgar’s Bakery or not I ask you to forward this e-mail to everyone in your address book.

Regards,

Barrie L. Limerick

Posted by rtkenmore at 10:03 PM on the 14th of July, 2006.
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