The ongoing hostile work place that women and minorities in the federal government face continues to cost whistle blowers jobs--and, over time, generate massive class action lawsuits which the taxpayers pay for.
Whistleblowers get fired, some get paid off via expensive class action lawsuits--and the perpetrators continue their federal employment, often generating more lawsuits.
by Monica Davis (Muckracker)
Today's economy sustains a hostile work environement, which keeps people in jobs where they are often terrorized, abused, even raped by superiors and co-workers. And, when they complain, guess who's fired? Hint: it isn't the abusers.
America's ongoing conflict with human rights, economic justice and political evolution is being conducted by a variety of human rights activists, many of whom weren't a twinkle in their parents' eyes during the Civil Rights revolution of the Sixties. From students who are being smothered by massive student loan debt and corrupt education education organizations, to middle class workers whose jobs have disappeared, to federal employees who have been denied their civil rights, the current political protests and social upheaval is growing in strength—and opposition.
Many workers risk their jobs when they file discrimination complaints. Others risk termination over protests. The tight economy has created a perfect storm for a hostile workplace, as many federal and private sector employees are discovering. Yet, it seems as if there is a great awakening. After so many years of complacency, many are filing complaints, generating class action lawsuits, and taking to the streets in protest of institutional corruption, hostile work environments, and the failure of the federal government to police its own agencies—not to mention bring the Wall Street con artists and unindicted felons in and out of government to justice.
As usual, many couch potatoes sit back in their easy chairs and computer chairs and lob potshots at people who risk arrest, beating, and injury to exercise their constitutional rights of free speech and protest. Safe in the comfort of our homes, many stick their noses in the air and criticize those who have taken to the nation's streets, parks, and sidewalks to vent their anger at foreclosure, job loss, perpetual war and a federal government which spends the wealth of citizens who have yet to be born.
We Americans had forgotten that democracy is not a done deal. We close our eyes to the bloody pages in our history books and dismiss the protests, riots and insurrections which have fueled change in this country for 250 years. However, these days, between wars, bank failures, job loss, and millions of foreclosures, Americans can no longer stick their heads in the sand.
Indeed, many believe the Second American Revolution has already begun. As one writer on an alternative news site writes,
“There's a sense of desperation in American citizens today. Their jobs are being exported out of the country, their health insurance is being dropped by employers, their dollars are becoming increasingly worthless with each passing day and their futures don't look very promising. They're angry, frustrated and desperate, so they take to the streets and protest. Occupy Wall Street! Occupy The Fed! Take to the streets! ”
Activists, such as Lawrence Lucas and Lesa Donneley of the Coalition of Minority Employees represent minority and female employees in various hearings with the USDA. Referring to a November complaint which she filed on behalf of a Native American woman who is an Apprentice with the Forest Service, and is currently training in the Service's firefighter training academy, Ms. Donneley points to a culture of abuse in the US Forest Service: (Update: was fired on Nov. 14, 2011)
[This] is a complaint that I made again about the Apprentice Academy with an attached picture of a student sitting on the instructor's lap. This is how the culture is initiated in the firefighters. The Apprentice Academy starts them out believing it is ok to get wasted and have sex with female coworkers. Then they go on fire assignments and sexually harass and rape the female firefighters. The classes show sexist, sexually derogatory material, instructor's use a lot of profanity, the female Apprentices are sexually harassed by the men and no one will stop it. Alicia tried to stop it by reporting sexual harassment a few weeks ago. Less than a week later they had her up on disciplinary charges with threat of termination to shut her up. This really needs to be exposed!!!!!
On November 14, 2011, Dabney was fired from the US Forestry Service. After enduring racial harassment—and reporting it, she was terminated. The ongoing stress has had a major effect on Dabney's health over the past few months. After she was fired, Dabney collapsed and was taken by ambulance from the termination hearing to an area hospital.
The hostile work environment, which Dabney and millions of American workers endure, generates lawsuits, terminations, and retaliation, paving the way for existing labor and civil rights organizations, including the Coalition For Minority Employees, to tap into Occupy's energy. According to news reports, “The AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union and the Laborers’ International Union of North America will partner with Occupy Wall Street for “We are the 99 percent” rallies on Thursday. Liberal groups like MoveOn.org and the American Dream Movement plan to participate.”
As noted on Blackagendareport.com, “Some African Americans hesitated to join what began as an overwhelmingly white initiative for fear that “we are going to be the first ones to be brutalized by police” and “so many of us are already in ‘the system’ because of stop-and-frisk” and other targeting of Blacks, said Holder, a writer and performing artist. People of color will bring a perspective that “includes the prison industrial complex, racial profiling,” and other facts of Black life in the United States.”
Still, some see Occupy as an opportunity to broaden their base, and get their message out to a wider audience, beyond their own members. A New Jersey activist who is planning a 381 day protest over jobs says says his group has much in common with Occupy.
Daily demonstrations by the People’s Organization for Progress in Newark, New Jersey, share commonalities with the Occupy Wall Street movement, said P.O.P. organizer Larry Adams. Both are “responding to the impact of the decline of imperialism and its rapid efforts to put the burden on the masses.” At the top of P.O.P.’s demands is “a national jobs program, not government sponsorship of corporations in hope they’ll hire, but direct employment by the government of the unemployed,” said Adams. P.O.P. is prepared for a 381-day-long protest, the duration of the 1955 Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott.
History tells us, that, in the course of fighting injustice, people of color have been harassed, threatened with job loss, which, in turn, generates foreclosure and other economic uncertainties. For many Americans of all stripes, they literally can not afford to complain, protest, or seek justice against an abusive employer, due to the retaliation which often follows, as the case below shows.
Mintz v. District of Columbia and Darbeau v. District of Columbia, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34446
(D.D.C. 2006), has been in litigation in Federal Court since 2000. This case involves two
African-American D.C. government contracts specialists, terminated in retaliation for protesting racial harassment by their White supervisor and a White co-worker who was treated like a supervisor, Shockingly, the White supervisor freely referred to the African-American contract specialists and other employees as the "n" word and other derogatory terms, in D.C. government. When Mr. Mintz protested this and other racially discriminatory behavior, the supervisor viciously and crudely harassed him and attempted to provoke him to violence. When Mr. Mintz instead filed an EEO charge, he was placed on administrative leave while the charge was to be investigated -- rather than the supervisor accused of the discriminatory conduct! In fact, the Agency did not investigate the EEO charge. Instead, it retaliated against Mr. Mintz by firing him -- retroactively to the date that he filed the EEO charge!
Dabney's firing is one of a long list of retaliatory firings. Federal and private sector employees continue to face retaliatory firings, while their alleged abusers remain employeed--and often generate more expensive lawsuits and settlements.
Monica Davis is an author, columnist and activist. Her latest book may be purchased via the link below.http://www.lulu.com/...