
{"id":16031,"date":"2011-02-17T10:25:59","date_gmt":"2011-02-17T15:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=16031"},"modified":"2011-02-17T10:25:59","modified_gmt":"2011-02-17T15:25:59","slug":"hearings-concluded-for-fired-chapel-hill-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/02\/17\/hearings-concluded-for-fired-chapel-hill-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Hearings concluded for fired Chapel Hill workers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Taylor Sisk<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>CHAPEL HILL  \u00e2\u20ac\u201c According to the attorney for two Town of Chapel Hill Public Works Department employees fired for alleged insubordination and intimidating behavior, the town failed to follow its own grievance procedure, hastily terminating the men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s employment due to their active role in a unionizing effort. <\/p>\n<p>Clyde Clark, one of the two workers fired in October, appealed his firing to the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Personnel Appeals Committee last Wednesday night at the Chapel Hill Public Library in a hearing open to the public at Clark\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s request. Kerry Bigelow, fired at the same time as Clark and for the same alleged reasons, went before the committee on Feb. 3.<\/p>\n<p>The men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attorney, Al McSurely, has argued that his clients were fired in retaliation for grievances they filed with management that alleged racial bias in job placements and promotions and unsafe working conditions. The town alleges that the men were fired for inappropriate behavior toward supervisors and residents along their waste-collection route.<\/p>\n<p>As was the case in Bigelow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hearing, the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first witness spoke by telephone, identified only as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ms. Johnson.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She was joined Wednesday night, also by phone, by a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ms. Jones.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Both women said they had felt intimidated by Clark and Bigelow, but had asked only for a crew change, not that the men be fired. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153All of my complaints were based on problems we were having with our trash collection,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jones said.<\/p>\n<p>The men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supervisor, Larry Stroud, said that working with Clark and Bigelow was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a rocky road,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and that he had written Clark up after receiving complaints of trash not being picked up along his route. Stroud said that he spoke to Clark about the complaints, but that Clark \u00e2\u20ac\u0153acted like it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Public Works director Lance Norris said of complaints of the men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s behavior, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When it rises to the level that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re intimidating citizens and yelling at a citizen \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when the line is crossed.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>But in later questioning from the committee, Norris stated that he had learned from an investigator hired by the town that Stroud was going to his boss, Harv Howard, with complaints about Clark, but that they went no further. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153During the investigation, it was brought to my attention that Mr. Stroud had communicated with Mr. Howard and nothing was done,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Norris said. Howard has since been let go by the town.<\/p>\n<p>Clark denied the claims of intimidating behavior. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have you believe that I was out there acting like a maniac,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Clark said.<\/p>\n<p>Of Johnson and Jones\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 allegations, he said that growing up in Chapel Hill he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d learned that as a black man it was important to be careful how you acted around a white woman.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d done all that, I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be in this hearing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be in jail.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Clark defended his efforts to organize town employees with UE Local 150, which has supported workers who have filed grievances, saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see the problem with people wanting to sit down and better themselves.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>He said waste-collection drivers try to save time on their routes and that as a result \u00e2\u20ac\u0153there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a high risk of someone getting hurt.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Clark and Bigelow were seen by town management as the two primary organizers for the union, McSurely said. They were denied representation in their meetings with management regarding their suspensions, he said, and subsequently weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t allowed on town property.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153What was the rush to get them fired?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d McSurely said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The rush was that the union was building a movement at the same time and had a big meeting scheduled for the same day they fired them.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The Personnel Appeals Committee, comprised of Chapel Hill residents, has until Feb. 17 to make a recommendation regarding whether Bigelow should be rehired and until Feb. 23 for Clark. Those nonbinding recommendations will be presented to Town Manager Roger Stancil, who will make the final decision on both men.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to the attorney for two Chapel Hill Public Works employees fired for alleged insubordination and intimidating behavior, the town failed to follow its own grievance procedure &#8230;<\/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-16031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16031","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=16031"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16070,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16031\/revisions\/16070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}