Support pours in for fired E. Greenbush Walmart employee who redeemed $5.10 of cans
A Times Union story about a Walmart employee fired from his job for redeeming $5.10 worth of empty cans and bottles he found discarded in the parking lot sparked widespread outrage and is gaining traction nationally via social media. Local readers wrote and called the Times Union to express their anger at Walmart and vowed to boycott the store and to send the fired worker donations. Smith picked up the garbage for more than two months until Nov. 6, when he was fired for redeeming $5.10 worth of empty cans and bottles he found discarded on two occasions. Surveillance cameras caught Smith redeeming the empty bottles and cans at the store, tantamount to theft of Walmart property, according to the manager. Smith was fired from his $9-an-hour job a few weeks before his 90-day probationary period was up, denying him a 10 percent employee discount and other benefits. During his interrogation, the manager told Smith that a store cashier, who is white, was caught on camera stealing $20 from a cash register and stuffing it into her bra. Green and a staff attorney tried to contact Walmart managers, but none would listen to their concerns or their appeal to get Smith reinstated to his job. Smith had been homeless for four months before he sought help from the Homeless and Travelers Aid Society, which pays his rent in a Central Avenue rooming house.
