Vegan fired for not pushing meat

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July 1996:

COSTA MESA, California––Bus
driver Bruce Anderson, 38, an ethical vegan
for two years and a five-year employee of the
Orange County Transportation Authority,
was ordered off his bus in mid-route on June
4 and fired from his $16.60-an-hour job on
June 7 for refusing to hand out coupons to
riders good for free hamburgers at Carl’s Jr.
restaurants.
“I told them that I don’t eat dead
cows and no one else needs to, either,”
Anderson recounted to Los Angeles Times
reporter David Haldane. “I told them that I
wouldn’t support Carl’s Jr. in slaughtering
cows. I’m paid to drive a bus, not sit there
and hand out coupons for something I don’t
believe in.”

Reportedly backed by Teamsters
Union Local 952, Anderson said he offered
to do other work for the three-day remainder
of the Carl’s Jr. promotion, but the offer was
refused. Attorney Gloria Allred on
Anderson’s behalf on June 11 filed a charge
of religious discrimination with the U.S.
Equal Employment Opportunity Com-mission,
receiving a “right to sue” letter, and
pledged to follow through with a suit charging
OCTA with violating Section 1605.1 of
the EEOC guidelines, which define religious
practices “to include moral or ethical beliefs
as to what is right and wrong which are sincerely
held with the strength of traditional
religious views,” stipulating that, “The fact
that no religious group espouses such beliefs
or the fact that the religious group to which
the individual professes to belong may not
accept such a belief will not determine
whether the belief is a religious belief of the
employee or prospective employee.”
Because Anderson was fired for
insubordination, he cannot receive unemployment
benefits. A fund on his behalf has
been formed by In Defense of Animals.
Donations bearing his name may be