
{"id":13279,"date":"2010-10-21T08:19:37","date_gmt":"2010-10-21T16:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=13279"},"modified":"2010-10-21T08:19:37","modified_gmt":"2010-10-21T16:19:37","slug":"workers-lawyer-question-motivation-of-suspensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2010\/10\/21\/workers-lawyer-question-motivation-of-suspensions\/","title":{"rendered":"Workers, lawyer question motivation of suspensions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Taylor Sisk<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>CHAPEL HILL  \u00e2\u20ac\u201c The lawyer representing two suspended Town of Chapel Hill workers said that the tactics town administrators are using are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153right out of an anti-labor playbook.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Al McSurely, civil rights lawyer and legal redress chair for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro branch of the NAACP, is representing Kerry Bigelow and Clyde Clark, who on Sept. 20 were placed on paid administrative leave after public-works management staff reported receiving several complaints against them. <\/p>\n<p>McSurely said he was told the men are facing disciplinary action \u00e2\u20ac\u0153up to and including dismissal.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The town held a pre-disciplinary hearing last Thursday, with McSurely representing Bigelow and Clark. At that meeting, McSurely presented a letter to Public Works Department director Lance Norris requesting that within five days the town provide to him the men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s personnel files, thereby revealing the nature of the complaints filed against them. McSurely said on Wednesday that he had been informed that the files would be turned over to him by the end of the day. <\/p>\n<p>Both Bigelow and Clark say they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been told nothing other than that there was a citizen complaint and several by co-workers. They both state that they were unaware of any previous complaints, and contend that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re being targeted for having filed grievances in the past alleging racial bias in job placements and promotions. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve really just tried to come up with something,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bigelow said.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re trying to make an example out of us,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Clark added.<\/p>\n<p>Bigelow won a race-discrimination grievance in February, when he alleged that he had been passed over for a promotion, but nonetheless didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t receive the promotion.  <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I won it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But what did I win?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>According to Clark, the suspensions came when he and Bigelow arrived for work on a Monday morning after a Friday on which Bigelow had filed a safety grievance and assisted a co-worker in filing a route-assignment grievance and Clark had made known his intention to file a route-assignment grievance.<\/p>\n<p>Chapel Hill Town Manager Roger Stancil released a statement indicating that no information could be released to the public at this time, as it was a personnel matter and the investigation was ongoing.<\/p>\n<p>Michelle Laws, president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP, and Nathanette Mayo of UE 150 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which has supported workers who have filed grievances and encouraged them to work collectively \u00e2\u20ac\u201c drafted a letter to Stancil dated Oct. 8 alleging that the public works\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 management\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sent a chilling message to other workers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d not to file grievances or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153make any criticisms about safety or unfair and discriminatory practices, because, if you do, management will quickly discipline you and set you up to fire you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>McSurely has also questioned the involvement of Capital Associated Industries (CAI), an organization with offices in Raleigh and Greensboro, which, according to its website, is a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153non-profit employers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 association\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that helps \u00e2\u20ac\u0153more than 1,000 member companies maximize employee engagement and minimize employer liability through human resources and management advice, training, news, survey data, public policy advocacy and consulting services.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>McSurely said he would like to know what CAI offers that the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s human resources personnel can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t and how much the company is being paid.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153What do these guys know that the town doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d McSurely said.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Allegations or indications of employee misconduct are uncommon in our organization, but when they do occur, we take them seriously,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Stancil said in his statement. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Such matters are investigated thoroughly and fairly, and we act deliberately to make informed conclusions.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My best hypothesis is that the town believes the union is making inroads,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d McSurely said.<\/p>\n<p>McSurely believes that the suspensions are an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ideologically driven dispute on the part of the town.<\/p>\n<p> \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What it smells like is that there is a shift against the idea of building workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 representation that can sit down across the table and negotiate issues,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The lawyer representing two suspended Town of Chapel Hill workers said that the tactics town administrators are using are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153right out of an anti-labor playbook.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13279"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13317,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13279\/revisions\/13317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}