Six unionized members of an industrial plant ridiculed their supervisor on Facebook. The derogatory postings were made using personal equipment during personal hours. The employer moved to terminate them. Their union stepped in and saved their jobs but two of the employees ended up with one-week suspensions and the other four received letters of reprimand in their personnel files. Ridiculous? Not even the union would say so.

"This is a growing problem and employees have to be very, very careful of what they do," said Robert Ziegler, president of Local 832 United Food and Commercial Workers in Winnipeg, Canada. "This all falls into the category of off-duty conduct and under precedent and case law, all that can be held against you and our members can be disciplined and even fired. If an employer can prove that anything you've done affects the reputation of the company or created an atmosphere where other workers will not want to work with you, then the employer can discipline that employee," added Ziegler.

Keep in mind that this case arose in in Canada where labor laws are more socialist than they are in the United States. Also keep in mind that these statements are being made by a union official. There's no doubt, folks, that statements made on-line on sites such as Facebook, MySpace, blogs, etc. have the potential of negatively affecting the reputation of employers and if an employee makes such a statement, they can be disciplined or even terminated.