Update on Fired Worker: Union 'Bending Over Backwards' to Apologize

After the story of Duane Hammond quickly spread across the blogosphere this afternoon, his union is retreating and apologizing.

As we reported, Hammond, a union stagehand, was working to construct a platform that would showcase a USC campus visit from President Barack Obama Friday afternoon. When Hammond showed up for work wearing a hat and sweatshirt advertising the USS George H. W. Bush -- the naval vessel his son currently serves on -- he says union officials told him to go home.

The Blaze reached out Friday to Hammond's union, IATSE Local 33, to investigate further and was told a representative would get back to us. When another call went unanswered, we were directed to a voicemail that said the union's phones had been "temporarily disconnected."

On Friday evening, KTLA's Eric Spillman reported that Hammond's union had called him to apologize for the incident. Hammond added that the union officials are "bending over backwards" to make it up to him.