Days Inn parent offers statement after employee fired over interview

A Washington Post article ultimately led to a Days Inn employee getting fired, and now corporate is stepping in to help clean up the mess.

It all started when Post writer Chico Harlan interviewed Shanna Tippen, whom he describes as “another hourly worker at the bottom of the nation’s economy,” about a 25-cent minimum wage increase in Arkansas.

After the story came out, hotel manager Herry Patel, who introduced Tippen and the writer, fired Tippen. As Tippen puts it, “He said I was stupid and dumb for talking to [the Post]. He cussed me and asked me why you wrote the article. I said, ‘Because he’s a reporter; that’s what he does.’ He said it was wrong for me to talk to you.”