Email response from Totes/Isotoner

Here's the response email I received from Totes/Isotoner's customer affairs department. I am not satisfied. They have a customer relations nightmare on their hands here and I hope they are more proactive and convincing in their defense. The Ohio court rulings seemed shaky at best, full of twisted logic. I wish we knew more of the facts of the case because now it sounds like she said/they said.

Dear Amy,

Thank you for your note and concerns regarding the Ohio Supreme Court Ruling regarding the termination of a temporary employee.

As a matter of policy, totes»ISOTONER is not able to provide specific
information surrounding the employment circumstances of any employee. What we can share is that based on the circumstances involved with this specific temporary employee, the totes»ISOTONER employment decision has been supported by the Butler County Court of Common Pleas, the Ohio Court of Appeals for the 12th District and the Ohio Supreme Court. And while we cannot specifically address the Ohio Supreme Court Ruling, we can share several of our workplace practices:

· totes»ISOTONER absolutely supports employees, whether full-time, part-time, or temporary, who are also nursing mothers.

· totes»ISOTONER does provide time for nursing mothers to pump their breast milk and many employees have taken advantage of this accommodation. In the case presented to the Supreme Court, we did provide this accommodation.

· totes»ISOTONER is a company committed to supporting our employees. Because females account for approximately 70% of our work force, we are very attuned to and supportive of the needs of working mothers.

Again, thank you for your note and expressing your views on this issue. We take great pride in our culture of being a family oriented company, and can only indicate there were other factors involved in this particular situation which led to the company’s decision in this case. We appreciate your having been a customer in the past and hope you will reconsider your decision in this regard going forward.

Sincerely,

Vickie Fightmaster
Human Resources Manager
totes»ISOTONER

My complaint email to Totes/Isotoner customer affairs

Here is what I wrote to complain to Totes/Isotoner. It's not Shakespeare but I think
that any short email in each person's own words will help make an impression. I'll let you know what I hear back from them.

When I get the corporate address I plan to mail my favorite Isotoner
socks back to the CEO.

to: customeraffairs@totes.com

Dear Totes/Isotoner,

I have bought your products for as long as I can remember; gloves,
socks, slippers, umbrellas. I am sorry to tell you that I can no
longer buy your products now that I have learned about the Totes/
Isotoner firing of a breastfeeding employee. I know this happened
several years ago, but of course the news of the Ohio Supreme Court
decision has brought it to the attention of the blogosphere and
motherhood and anti-discrimination action groups. The discussion
boards I participate in have been absolutely on fire with outrage over
your action, and we are watching for your response.

Who do you think buys your products? I am sure it's women and mothers
buying for their whole families. You owe all of us an apology, you
owe LaNisa Allen a job, and you owe all your employees better
treatment. Wouldn't it be easier to make reasonable accommodations
for nursing mothers, rather than firing them? In addition to being
the right thing to do, of course!

Please send me the corporate contact information for your CEO, so that
I may register my concern directly and request a reply.

Signed, a former customer,

Amy Tiemann
[address]

And we wonder why more mothers don't breastfeed?

I just have a few minutes to blog this morning, but wanted to make sure you had all seen the story that had people talking all weekend.

Lactate on your own time, lady is an important Broadsheet post that tells the news of a woman who was fired by Totes/Isotoner for taking "unauthorized work breaks" to pump her breastmilk.

!

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that Totes/Isotoner could legally fire breastfeeding mother LaNisa Allen [corrected a mistake that attributed a quote from the lower court decision to the Supreme Court] on the grounds that she was fired for insubordination rather than because she was breastfeeding. Overall, a complete head-scratcher. How did this come to firing in the first place? It seems crazy.

This situation bothers me on so many levels: 1. That an employer would be so adversarial and insist on the outmoded "unencumbered worker" model of business. How about accommodating breastfeeding rather than firing her? 2. That the laws as currently written don't protecting employees from this kind of discrimination and 3. That the court ruling didn't see this as breastfeeding discrimination.

This may need to change at the legislative level rather than through the courts, but it needs to change! We need to put the word out about this case. I will report on any activist opportunities that come up around this situation.

It also helps explains why nursing, employed Moms are satisfied to have any spartan accommodations set up for them, like the spartan closet in the women's bathroom at IBM where the mothers of The Milk Memos (a good book, by the way) turned into their "pumping palace." But isn't it time that we deserve better? If breastfeeding is not protected by employment law, then it's time to specifically write it in to Federal statues.

Update:

Journal News (Ohio) reporting, written before the Supreme Court decision was rendered, gives more details of LaNisa Allen's expereince, including her work schedule. I don't question her need to take breaks, but some letter writes on Salon.com wondered what her exact schedule was.

Totes customer affairs email: customeraffairs@totes.com

Updated to correct an earlier misattributed quote, 2:00 pm ET.