Oct 8, 2015 1 min read

HILLSDALE, Mich. (AP) – A Bob Evans employee in Michigan is out of work after he declined to remove a large Confederate flag from his pickup truck in the parking lot.

Wesley Rogers told the Hillsdale Daily News he has the right to express himself. But Angela Payne, a spokeswoman at Bob Evans, said the flag is “offensive to many of our customers and employees.”

Payne told the Associated Press Rogers resigned from a sausage plant in Hillsdale, 70 miles south of Lansing, after refusing to remove the flag or park elsewhere. He said he was fired.

Rogers said the Confederate flag is important to him as a native of the South. Critics say the flag is a symbol of racial segregation.

Bob Evans is based in New Albany, Ohio.