East Greenbush

As a Walmart official sought to defuse a nationally trending Times Union story about a controversial firing of an employee, a groundswell of indignation spurred an online petition, calls for action against the retailer and hundreds of angry comments on social media.

Aaron Mullins, a Walmart spokesman, clarified that employee Thomas Smith was fired for redeeming $2 worth of cans and bottles left behind in a shopping cart at the East Greenbush store for roughly an hour in an entryway next to redemption machines.

"He was terminated for taking property inside the store," Mullins said Thursday after reaction to the Times Union story grew.

It fueled calls for a Walmart boycott, sparked letters of outrage to Walmart officials, and spurred a Chicago woman to launch a GoFundMe crowd-funding campaign that by Friday had raised $4,465 for Smith from 227 donors around the country.

On Wednesday, Mullins said Smith was fired due to a human resource matter that he could not elaborate on.

Later Thursday, after the story set off a firestorm of protest, Mullins called the Times Union to clarify the details of Smith's firing.

Mullins said Walmart was not disputing $3.10 worth of empty beer cans discarded in the parking lot next to a trash can that Smith, after he saw the man who dumped them drive off, took inside the store and redeemed for the nickel deposits.

Rather, Mullins said, the termination focused on $2 worth of cans and bottles left in the shopping cart, a few yards off the parking lot, just inside the store's entryway.

Smith, 52, of Albany, a formerly homeless ex-convict who has a learning disability, was fired after he signed a statement following an interrogation by three security managers inside the security office.

Smith said he did not have his glasses and could not read the statement, but he signed it because he did not want to argue and risk any violation of his parole.

Walmart officials refused to provide Smith with a copy of the statement and also refused to release the statement to an attorney with The Center for Law and Justice in Albany, where founder Alice Green took up Smith's cause.

Mullins said he would not provide a copy of that statement to the Times Union, but he said Smith was terminated for "gross misconduct" regarding the $2 in bottles and cans left in the shopping cart.

Meanwhile on Friday, OUR Walmart, a national advocacy group of current and former Walmart employees, whom the company calls associates, joined local labor groups in planning actions to protest Walmart's handling of Smith and to urge his reinstatement as an employee.

"C'mon. Firing the guy for $2 in bottles and cans? Where's the human compassion? Where's the dignity and respect?" asked Mark Emanatian, lead organizer of Citizen Action of New York's Albany chapter.

"It struck us as an outrageous example of Walmart treating its workers poorly," said Emily McNeill, lead organizer of the Labor-Religion Coalitions. Both groups were successful in the campaign to increase the pay of fast-food workers to $15 an hour.

Those two organizations, FOCUS Churches, the Capital District Area Labor Federation, OUR Walmart and others are drawing up an online petition they will distribute asking Walmart to reinstate Smith at a different store. They also will publicize Smith's case at OUR Walmart's annual Black Friday protests at Walmart stores across the country.

The groups also are seeking a meeting with Walmart officials to discuss Smith's firing as they consider additional actions.

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"We're not calling for a boycott yet. I always think it's better to go through the process and talk reasonably, rather than throw up a picket in front of the store," Emanatian said.

"This effort is really taking off. I'm getting calls from all over the country," said Green of the Center for Law and Justice in Albany, which has been working on Smith's behalf and trying to get him his job back. She and center employees are making sure thousands of dollars being donated go directly to Smith.

Assemblyman Steven McLaughlin, a Republican from Schaghticoke who represents parts of Rensselaer County, visited the Walmart store in East Greenbush and asked a manager to rehire Smith at a different store. He also spoke to a Walmart official at its corporate headquarters.

"I said this is nonsense. Let's just try to help the guy. He made a mistake, give him a warning and move on," McLaughlin said. "He's been in prison, he was homeless and now he's got a job and is trying to contribute to society. They're turning a mole hill into a mountain of bad publicity. I told Walmart they're a week away from their biggest shopping day of the year and they could end up with a bunch of protesters outside the store. Just transfer him to a different store. Easy fix."

Meanwhile, a Target manager who read about Smith's firing plans to consider him for employment.

"We have to look into his situation more, but we are interested in speaking to him," said Marita Paredez, human resources manager at the Target store in East Greenbush.

On Friday, Smith said the disputed $2 in cans and bottles involved a couple who asked him for a shopping cart when they parked. He got them a cart and they dumped several plastic bags of empty cans and bottles into the cart. He watched them go into the store.

Nearly an hour later, Smith saw the couple leave the store after they finished shopping, and he said he went into the entryway, saw the couple's leftover cans and bottles in a shopping cart and fed them into the machines. He got a receipt for $2, went to the cashier and was given two singles.

His activities were recorded by surveillance cameras and that was used in the interrogation and cited in his firing, Mullins said.

Smith never disputed that he redeemed the cans and bottles. He said he never received an employee handbook, was never told about company policy regarding cans and bottles left behind and he never felt he was stealing since the empties were discarded.

Mullins said those bottles were Walmart property and by redeeming them, Smith was guilty of "gross misconduct."

Smith said he never heard that term used in the statement that was read to him before he signed it.

The total of bottles and cans redeemed by Smith was $5.10 on two occasions in more than two months he worked at Walmart. He often agreed to work extra weekend shifts and extra hours beyond his 25-hour workweek when requested to do so by management.

On the day he was fired, a Friday, he worked four hours beyond his regular shift and was fired after he had been working for more than eight hours. Smith was a few weeks short of the end of his 90-day probationary period, when he would be eligible for a 10 percent employee discount.

Smith remained adamant in an interview with the Times Union on Friday that he never stole from Walmart.

"I never stole anything from that store," Smith said. "I paid for everything I bought inside the store."

He said he bought work boots and a few other items during his time as an employee and paid a cashier each time in cash.

pgrondahl@timesunion.com • 518-454-5623 • @PaulGrondahl