smoking laws

[fkool69]

michigan--ok here goes,,, i work in a small mfg. shop and we have 9 employees. plant #1 consists of 5 and plant #2 consists of four.
we have been smoking in the shop for years,, until end of 2004.
each plant has a foreman and they have many differences.
recently we had two jobs that needed completing. plant 2 completed theirs within three days w two employees..
plant 1 refused to do the job. after 2 weeks of delay(bickering back ond forth), plant 1 completed the job w four employees within two days.
now because upper mgmt was in plant2's favor on the incident,, plant 1 continues to knitpick at plant2's every move..

plant 2 consists of the smokers

as you could guess plant 1 complains of plant 2 taking 3 five min. per day..
but plant 2 continually notices plant 1 taking breaks to comminicate with themselves... usually consisting of 15-20 min. each... numerous times per day..

our shop has cameras installed to monitor both plants, but the upper mgmt. never seems to notice ANY of plant 1's mis-behavior,,,, ALWAYS watching plant 2..

is this a favortism item????

p.s. yes i work in plant 2 and am a smoker

many other incidents go on in our shop on a daiy basis ie.. grievace,,drama,,un-orthidoxed communication from offices to foremen,,
but we don't know where to turn for answers.. our employer leaves us feeling that our job is on "thin ice" if we try to excercise his open door policy

[cbg]

No, this is not favoritism, and even if it were, favoritism is not illegal.

Nothing in your post suggests that either plant has any kind of legal case against each other or against the employer.

Now, this word is for all nine of you. Grow up and behave like adults, and you won't have this kind of problem.

[fkool69]

i'd like to thank you cbg for the reply,,, but if we all listened to each other tell ourselves to grow up,,, we wouldn't be having this problem...

i could see this working in a shop with a rapid overturn of employees, but this shop consists of seven guys that have been there for at least ten year,,, three have been there over twenty years..i'm the new guy with one other guy that started three months after me..3 yrs ago..

the owner of our company just passed away last mont, now his wife is getting a crash course in the business from upper mgmt,,, which never gets to see what goes on in the shop on a daily basis.... they manage from their computer desk,,, rather than try to lead by example...

when a problem arises in the shop, the upper mgmt. will walk outside the building, rather than through the shop,,,( to avoid conflict)..

we are not looking for a lawsuit,,, we are just trying to find a happy-medium resolution that we can deal with each other for our 40 hr. week

[cbg]

I understand, but it's something you'll have to work out internally - this is not a legal issue.