Vindicated

I am not proud to admit this.  It took me a while to get over this unfair treatment.  I was terminated from my job with CPT (Community Physical Therapy).  I had a quarrel with this idiot polish coworker.  She started cursing me in polish and I lost my cool and called her a bitch.  The morons at corporate CPT decided to terminate my employment while the woman who initiated the name calling got to keep her job.  God only knows why CPT made this unfair decision.  This was my first offense and they did not even get my side of the story when they terminated me.  They claim that they do not tolerate harassment.  It is hardly harassment when the "victim" was the aggressor in the conflict.  Anyways, it was what it was.  I have no legal recourse since Illinois is an "At Will Employment" state.  Meaning an employer can terminate an employee for any reason.  And without a union or an employment contract, the terminated employee has no legal recourse.   This was my predicament.  So I applied for unemployment at the IDES (Illinois Department of Employment Securities).  I thought at least I get to have a small revenge on CPT since this means they have to contribute more to the government in the future for having an unemployment claim against them.  Naturally, CPT contested my claim stating that I was terminated for a "cause".  This means if somebody stole from their employer or physically assaulted a coworker/costumer or was given sufficient warning for a repeated offense, there is a "cause" to terminate them.  And this employee who was terminated for a "cause" are not eligible for unemployment benefits from IDES.  So IDES interviewed me and they also spoke with the representative of CPT to get each sides of the story.  And IDES judgement was to my favor.  They granted me unemployment benefits since there was no "cause" to terminate my employment.  It was a small vindication for me to win this since I knew I was treated unfairly.  Now IDES also is agreeing that I was terminated unfairly.  Vindication indeed!