Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Air Force reservist sues US Steel over firing




U.S. Steel Corp. fired an Air Force reservist while she was training to become a flight engineer for the 911th Airlift Wing in Moon, a woman claims in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.


Rebecca Jackanic claims the company fired her from her position as an aircraft dispatch and safety management specialist because of her frequent deployments. She's suing under federal and state laws that protect reservists' jobs while they're deployed.


Company spokeswoman Courtney Boone said U.S. Steel doesn't discuss pending lawsuits.


Jackanic says in the lawsuit that the company hired her in 2002. She deployed to Kuwait on a combat mission between 2003 and 2005, deployed again on combat missions in 2009 and 2010, and was deployed for training in November 2012. The company fired her in March while she was on that training, the lawsuit says.


Her lawyer, Tim O'Brien, said they aren't contesting that U.S. Steel reorganized its workforce to cut costs at the time it fired her. They claim the company used its Carnegie Way reorganization as a way to fire her for frequent military deployments.


The company retained people doing the same work as Jackanic who have less experience and fewer qualifications, O'Brien said.


U.S. Steel announced in May that it laid off an undisclosed number of employees in operations and business support functions.




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