President Obama: Why Are You Allowing Your Postmaster General to Run a Plantation?

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

President Obama: Why Are You Allowing Your Postmaster General to Run a Plantation?

The United States Postal Service is running a latter-day plantation. It’s been documented by members of congress, and arbitrators, that the postal service is routinely falsifying employee clock rings, subjecting its employees to harassment, intimidation, and abuse, and forcing many of its employees to work between four and six hours a day without pay. Then, even though the Inspector General has documentation of the commission of a federal crimes in hand, the perpetrators are being allowed to walk away with impunity, and even promoted.

What’s so curious about this situation is that your administration seems to be totally accepting of this abuse, and completely in the dark about what it’s doing to your image. While you’re hanging onto Glenn Beck’s every word, you’re completely ignoring a federal assault on the people who voted you into office. Then, speaking of audacity, you have your collective lips poked out because workers have the audacity to complain about it. In effect, you’re asking your constituency to accept your position that, “Okay, so they’re destroying one or two families – but we got you some healthcare!” That’s not gonna fly.  The way we see it is, if you’re willing to ignore these kind of atocities, you’re not the man we thought you were – people are DYING!

The federal law is clear. 18 U.S.C. § 1001 reads as follows:

“Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully – (1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact; (2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or (3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry; shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years or, if the offense involves international or domestic terrorism (as defined in section 2331), imprisoned not more than 8 years, or both.”

Congressman Paul Hodes (D-N.H.) called on the United States Postal Service to present a plan to fully reimburse postal workers for the wages they have lost as a result of managers manipulating their timecards.” The congressman went on to say:

“It has been weeks and the hard-working employees at these post offices are still waiting for answers,” said Congressman Hodes. “The USPS should immediately present a plan to ensure that workers are immediately reimbursed for their lost wages, and that appropriate disciplinary action is taken. Those individuals responsible for cheating New Hampshire families out of hard earned wages must be held accountable . . . In May of this year, I wrote to USPS Inspector General David Williams requesting that his office investigate claims that the United States Postal Service had altered letter carriers’ timesheets on an electronic time system for the last six years. “

And Arbitrator Sherrie Rose Talmadge said in her December 2, 2009 decision that “[USPS] Management’s violations were so egregious over a period of many years that punitive damages were awarded to deter the service from further clock ring violations.”

As I’ve mentioned previously, President Lincoln was willing to go to war to end slavery on his watch, while you have it in your power to emancipate over 600,000 American citizens with a simple phone call. Yet, in spite of repeated White House contacts and extended articles written and posted on the Democratic National Committee website, you’ve failed to make that phone call. We want to know why?

I’ve also previously mentioned how much pride I took in supporting your campaign, both in my column, and through my very meager bank account. While the historic nature of your candidacy wasn’t lost on me, I didn’t support you simply because you are Black, however – Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are also Black, but I didn’t support either of them. I supported you because I was inspired by your pledge to usher in a change that I could believe in. Well, frankly, especially in the current matter, I’m not seeing that.

While I take great pride in your election, I vote with my mind, not my heart. So having a Black president is meaningless to me if he’s not aggressively protecting the interest of ALL of the American people.

On the morning of June 2, 2009, a city letter carrier went to work and reportedly fatally shot himself in the head in the locker room at a postal facility in Gastonia, North Carolina. The Gaston Gazette online news report stated that the “Gastonia Police are investigating an apparent suicide this morning at the post office. . . . One of the employees is inside dead from a gunshot wound.”

Prior to my retirement from the USPS, at a former district I worked for, there were three suicides within a two year period that I concluded were contributed to in significant part by how these employees were treated in the workplace. The third employee, a city letter carrier, fatally shot himself in a postal jeep and left a letter stating that he could no longer take the job. The night before he committed suicide he told his wife he did not know if he would be able to handle his job anymore. How do I know? His wife told me this one day after his suicide. He was one of the best employees in the office. The District Manager and I interviewed his coworkers after his death, and they stated he would urinate in a bottle while on delivery route for fear he would not meet an artificial deadline set by postal management. During the interviews, one of the postal supervisors told the District Manager and me that the day before the suicide she gave a letter to all the city letter carriers in the station, noting that any future over time used for their routes would be considered unacceptable performance. The suicide at the Gastonia postal facility was the second since December 2005.

Many people have asked: Why is there so much stress and workplace tragedies in the U.S. Postal Service? The answer to these questions is because the postal culture embraces and reflects core values that center on achieving bottom-line results with little or no regard for employee participation, respect, dignity, or fairness. Additionally, there is little or no accountability for the actions of top management in the Postal Service. Many postal facilities consequently have toxic work environments, and they can be a catalyst or trigger for serious acts of workplace violence, including homicide and suicide. The associated rewards system for behavior consistent with the postal culture core values, moreover, enables systemic organizational and individual bullying of employees at all levels of the organization.

I define a toxic workplace environment as a workplace where there is a high incidence of stress-related illnesses. These stress-related illnesses are manifested by psychological and physical deterioration. In other words, these types of environments seriously erode employees’ health and well-being. The primary factors contributing to a toxic workplace environment are high job demands, low job control, and low social support. Low social support generally entails a lack of respect and validation of employees’ dignity by their “superiors”. It also oftentimes includes organizational practices and methods that encourage the bullying of employees to meet corporate goals.

The name of the city letter carrier who committed suicide in Gastonia, NC on June 2, 2009 is Steven Spencer age 60. According to his obituary, Steven was married and leaves two daughters and three grandchildren. He was a member of the National Association of Letter Carriers/ and state representative for Muscular Dystrophy Association. He was the founder of the National Association of Letter Carriers Food Drive for Gaston County. He was very active in Scouting, attaining the highest rank of Eagle Scout. He also was a member of the Order of the Arrow. Steven was a veteran of the Vietnam War serving his country proudly in the US Navy.

I find it highly improbable that an employee will kill himself or herself in a postal facility or while on a postal route unless it is to send a clear message that a toxic workplace exists and the person can’t handle it anymore. Sadly, it also may be a tragic attempt to better the lot of one’s fellow coworkers by drawing attention to the tragic event itself.

Prior to Steven’s suicide, I was contacted by a relative of an employee at the Gastonia post office in April of this year. She was concerned because of what she reported as a toxic workplace environment at the Gastonia post office, lack of accountability to address employees’ concerns, and that the situation may lead to another workplace tragedy. Unfortunately, her worst concern became a reality on June 2, 2009. She further indicated several employees have resigned their positions at the office because of the toxic workplace environment and others were suffering from negative psychological and physical effects because of this environment.

I was told employees’ attempts, mostly city letter carriers, to have their concerns addressed over a two-year period included: filing of discrimination complaints and grievances, unprofessional workplace assessments, town hall meetings, contacts to congressional representatives both locally and nationally, contacts to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), and petitions to Charlotte postal District officials as well as to national representatives of the Postal Service and the NALC. She further indicated that none of these measures contributed to fully addressing the workplace environment or alleviating its negative impact for the employees at the Gastonia Post Office.

In order for the U.S Postal Service to become a safe and healthy organization and thereby prevent future workplace tragedies, which have been at an epidemic level over the past three decades, there is an urgent need for congressional intervention and legislation to address its toxic postal culture. Dr. Gary Namie and his wife, Dr. Ruth Namie, along with their colleague Dr. David Yamada, have for years pushed for such legislation at the state and federal level. In order for national legislation for the prevention of workplace bullying to have the intended impact, it would require sanctions to employers or their representatives who are in violation of a new workplace statute that defines workplace bullying as a harmful and illegal activity.

With that, we’ll let the victims speak for themselves. The following is the text of a petition that went to Congresswoman Maxine Waters. Appended to the petition was six double-columned pages of signatures:

Dear Madam:

We the employees of the Los Angeles International Service Center, (LAXISC) formerly the Carson International Service Center of the United States Postal Service humbly request your office to inquire about the horrendous behavior, sexual harassment and physical intimidation practices of named manager, Raul Corona. This manager has been exiled from the facility on more than one occasion for extended periods and was referred to anger management because of his actions and conduct. Recently, he allowed one of his acting supervisors to kick an employee, then slap them in the back of the head and make remarks about her body parts, stating that it was so tight that a quarter could bounce off of it. These actions were witness by other employees who either gave statements or were willing to testify to the office of the EEOC as to what was witnessed. Mr. Corona took no action against the 204B supervisor but instead displayed his true disregard for the employee by confronting her on the work floor about her complaint against the supervisor. This is just one of the many egregious actions of Mr. Raul Corona.

A complaint was made to the APWU, American Postal Workers Union and charges were also filed with the EEOC which is being handled by the APWU building facilitator Donna Williams who is representing this complainant and numerous others involving MDO Corona. While this incident is currently under investigation and review Mr. Corona has had at least one of the witnesses brought into his office and threaten them with disciplinary action if they did not personally give him a statement after they had already spoken with and given statements to the union representative, and when they requested that a union representative be present during his personal investigation, they were denied, which is a direct violation of the Weingarten Act. ( see attached )

This same witness who has FMLA and receives chemotherapy for her condition (lupus) was directed to his office by supervisor Erma Harris and when the employee would not cooperate with his request not only did he threaten her with disciplinary action, he directed his supervisor Brian Ta to go into the time and attendance system known as TACS to remove her pay three days later after she had called in for FMLA leave which had been already approved by this same supervisor. Because of the numerous grievances and EEO’S that are filed and still pending against this manager and conditions being so toxic, employees have bidded to other tours for fear of retaliation which we believe will take place to all of us who have signed this petition.

And if these circumstances aren’t demoralizing enough we have observed Mr. Corona engaged in an improper and unprofessional relationship with one of his acting supervisors (204B), which violates the Postal code of conduct and ethics prohibiting this type of relationship between a manager and employee which is still ongoing. He personally assist her with her job duties in front of other employees when she is not supervising and she has been observed leaving his office with her clothes disheveled which had to be pointed out to her by a union steward, and they have also been seen by other employees in compromising situations. The most recent, being seen exiting the Postal Inspectors cat walk door located at the southwest corner of the building, he zipping up his pants as she was buttoning her blouse.

We are asking that MDO Corona be sent to another facility LAP&DC permanently and to be taken off of the work floor entirely where he can be under the watchful eye of his bosses as was done before, because he has waged his own personal vendetta against any and all employees who file charges against him. Employees on all three tours at one time or another have had to disrupt their family and personal lives by bidding to other tours just to get away from this man. Attached you will find a copy of just one of the petitions that were filed against this manager starting in 2003 and a recent EEOC discrimination and personal harassment case that was charged and awarded against this facility for these type of practices .

If any additional information or facts are needed we are sure you can get the cooperation of the APWU union representatives both mailhandlers and clerks at the LAXISC.

We feel if something is not done about this manager soon, the conditions here will deteriorate further becoming more toxic and possibly escalate into something which the public and news media refer to as “Going Postal” which we are fearful of. We all have families to take care of and do not wish to come to work in an environment having to look over our shoulders fearful that something will happen that could have been avoided.

All signatures in regards to this petition can be verified through the APWU building facilitator Donna Williams. We would deeply appreciate your office’s assistance in this disturbing matter.

Petitioners

The following, according to the petitioners, took place subsequent to the petition:

On Friday April 23,2010, employee Cloe Edwards was in serious physical distress having chest pains and requested 911. Mr.Raul Corona MDO told the employee he was not calling 911 for her because the Postal Service was not going to pay for the ambulance service and if she felt that bad, she should call herself which she wound up having to do. The paramedics from the Airport Fire Station # 95 on the corner of Century Blvd and International Road came and Ms. Edwards had to be taken out on a stretcher around 4:45pm.

Mr. Corona got belligerent with the paramedics telling them she was faking and started demanding her prognosis. The paramedics that attended to Ms . Edwards could not believe what they were hearing from this manager. She was taken to Marina Hospital in Marina del Rey where she was informed that her blood pressure had gotten so high that she was on the verge of either having a heart attack or stroke. She was then transferred to Kaiser Permanente in Bellflower.She was released Sunday evening April 25th. Ms. Edwards return to work Monday fearful that MDO Corona may try to take action against her.

She was given orders that she would not be allowed to perform her bidded duties as a general expeditor and would be working mail in IAAA. She is currently in the process of filing for leave under workman’s compensation on the advice of the hospital.

******

Eric L. Wattree
wattree.blogspot.com
[email protected]

Religious bigotry: It’s not that I hate everyone who doesn’t look, think, and act like me – it’s just that God does.

Eric L. Wattree

Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet, and musician, born in Los Angeles. He’s a columnist for The Los Angeles Sentinel, The Black Star News in New York, and a Staff writer for Veterans Today. He’s also the author of A Message From the Hood.