Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
Stop Racist Attacks, Discrimination and Union Busting By SF MTA Bosses & City
Import event into your personal calendar
Date:
Friday, February 25, 2022
Time:
11:30 AM
-
12:30 PM
Event Type:
Class/Workshop
Organizer/Author:
UFCLP
Location Details:
SF MTA Headquarters
1 South Van Ness/Market St.
San Francisco
1 South Van Ness/Market St.
San Francisco
Stop Racist Attacks, Discrimination and Union Busting By SF MTA Bosses & City
2/25 Friday Press Conference/Rally SF MTA 250A Transit Workers & Car Cleaners Protest Bullying, Discrimination & Illegal Attacks Against Workers
Press Conference/Rally On Systemic Racism, Bullying & Illegal Physical & Verbal Abuse Against SF MTA Workers
Friday February 25, 2022 11:30 AM
SF MTA Headquarters
1 South Van Ness & Market St.
San Francisco, CA
SF MTA 250a transit worker April Chandler Shannon and other workers have faced a systemic verbal and even physical assaults on the job.
They have also faced retaliation for speaking out against health and safety violations.
Other workers including car cleaners have also faced illegal discrimination and health and safety violations. Numerous complaints have been made to SF City agencies but the City regulatory and oversight agencies have failed to do their job and defend the health and safety of the workers.
Cal-OSHA and other state agencies have also failed to address these issues.
SF MTA employees will speak out about the specific issues and call on the management to be held accountable to these labor and human rights violations.
This is also not new in the City and County of San Francisco which has a long record of systemic racism and ethnic cleansing of CCSF jobs along with
outsourcing and contracting out of jobs. Members of the SF Board of Supervisors and SF Mayor London Breed have also been informed of these issues and
they are part of the labor negotiations with the City & County of San Francisco.
Sponsored by United Front Committee For A Labor Party
http://www.ufclp.org
info(at)ufclp.org
Black employees condemn S.F. Department of Human Resources for silencing discrimination complaints
By Juan Carlos Lara | Oct 2, 2020 |
Cedric Jackson (left) and Dante King (right) address the crowd in front of City Hall on Oct. 2. Photo by Juan Carlos Lara
Dozens of Black San Francisco employees, undeterred by hot weather and harmful air quality, rallied at San Francisco City Hall Friday afternoon to call for justice after recent revelations of a Department of Human Resources manager purportedly forging a fraudulent settlement agreement for a Black MTA employee.
“I worked directly in DHR for four years,” said Dante King, the main speaker at the event, who is now with the MTA. “I will say this: During my time there I got to see people do things that undermined fairness, that undermined equality.”
The Black Employee Alliance and Coalition Against Anti-Blackness hosted roughly 50 participants at the rally at City Hall calling for accountability for city officials. The latter, they allege, are complicit in the suppression of discrimination complaints by Black city workers.
Organizers specifically named Micki Callahan, the director of the Department of Human Resources, and Linda Simon, the director of Equal Employment Opportunity, an office within the department. .
Mission Local recently spoke with San Francisco departmental HR officials who said that discrimination complaints by employees were purposefully edited by the department to downplay the gravity of the accusations, then often disregarded entirely.
King said that Callahan and Simon were either involved in the EEO manager Rachel Sherman’s alleged forgery scheme , or were incompetent in not knowing it was happening.
Two days ago, a lawyer for Simon issued cease and desist letters to members of the Black Employee Alliance and the Coalition Against Anti-Blackness. The groups defiantly disseminated the letters to their members and city officials.
“Ms. Simon had no knowledge of Sherman’s actions. She did not condone Sherman’s actions or attempt to cover them up.For you to claim otherwise, and to assert, for example, that Ms. Simon was involved in ‘criminal activity,’ is defamatory,” the letter from Simon’s lawyer said.
Organizers replied to Simon saying, “The Black Employee Alliance and Coalition Against Anti-Blackness will not relent from our quest for change, accountability, and transparency. We will also not be intimidated by San Francisco City Officials or leaders who decide we are too vocal and/or ‘problematic.’ As Black people, we have been (and continue to be) forced to be silent about our oppression and our oppressors. This is a blatant example and act of that oppression.”
King, who frequently joked at the event that he might be fired for speaking out, has a history of calling attention to racism within the city government.
Last April, King sent an email to San Francisco Police Department Chief Bill Scott and his then-supervisor, Department of Human Resources Director Micki Callahan, accusing SFPD’s ranks of containing widespread, drastic anti-Black sentiment.
King, who was then on the tail end of two years as an implicit bias trainer for the department, recalled an incident in which a group of SFPD captains and lieutenants took him to lunch, where they told him officers would respond better to the training if King were white.
“We would be able to hear you better. Most of the people in the room would be able to hear you better,” King recollected one officer telling him.
Although the name of that officer was redacted when city officials released the document to the San Francisco Examiner, the paper later confirmed that officer to be Captain Jason Cherniss.
Organizers invited multiple city officials to speak at today’s event, including Mayor London Breed and more than half of city supervisors, whom they see as having, “demonstrated consistent support for the challenges faced by Black employees and residents of San Francisco,” according to an email announcing the rally.
Supervisors Shamann Walton and Matt Haney were the only city officials to accept the invitation to speak at the rally. Photo by Juan Carlos Lara.
Supervisors Shamann Walton and Matt Haney were the only ones to actually take up the invitation.
“It is not okay that Black employees have complaints that are not taken seriously. It is not okay to go to work and be mistreated,” said Walton, the lone Black supervisor. Addressing organizers, Walton said, “Thank you for doing this today and calling attention to an issue that has been going on too long.”
Haney acknowledged the “brutal” conditions of the day, citing the participants’ attendance despite the heat advisory, air quality advisory and ongoing pandemic, as evidence of their commitment.
“It shouldn’t take revelations of a scandal for us to say, ‘you are absolutely right, we believe you and we need to do better,’” Haney said.
Several Black city employees in attendance also spoke regarding their own experiences of racism in the workplace.
Adrienne Heim, who works for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and is a member of the Black and African American Affinity Group, pointed out that Black MTA workers were disproportionately charged with disciplinary offences.
Dennis Mars, who has worked for the Department of Public Health since 2014, says he applied for two promotions and was passed over twice despite having never been late, never missed a day, and also received the top score on a test among supervisor applicants, and receiving sixth place on a managers test.
Dennis Mars (right) speaks to the crowd about the discrimination he has faced while working at the Department of Public Health. Photo by Juan Carlos Lara.
Mars said one of the people who got the promotion instead of him has only been at the Department of Public Health for about two years, and the other scored much lower on the applicant test. Mars believes he did not receive the promotion as retaliation for filing an EEO complaint against a manager for failing to take action when a coworker threatened Mars with violence in 2018.
The City Attorney’s office is investigating the forged settlement agreement. The District Attorney’s office has also expressed interest in doing so.
We’re at the demonstrations so that you don’t have to be.
CCSF Black Workers & Supporters Speak Out At SF City Hall Against Systemic Racism And Corruption
https://youtu.be/rVZ7zyc4gjY
Black City & County of San Francisco workers rallied on October 2, 2020 and spoke out in front to San
Francisco City Hall about the systemic racism and continuing attacks on Black workers in San Francisco.
They also discussed the exposure of corruption and criminal activity at the Department of Human Resources
run by Micki Callahan.
Also Laborers Local 261, TWU 200 and TWU 250 participated and spoke about the need for the labor
movement to fight the systemic racism.
The rally was sponsorsed by SF Black Emplooyee Alliance, Coalition Against Anti Blackness, SEIU 1021 AFRAM, Misc. SFGH Chapter,
SF Black Leadership Forum, Laborers 261, SF Police Officers For Justice and SF Chapter NAACP
Additional media:
Bombshell: SF HR director claims ‘rogue employee’ forged settlement with Black worker
https://missionlocal.org/.../bombshell-san-francisco.../...
Email explains ‘terrible decisions’ behind SF HR manager forging deal
Rebecca Sherman afraid to side with Black city worker on claims
https://www.sfexaminer.com/.../email-explains.../...
MICHAEL BARBA
Union Busting, Union Rights, Racism, Covid/PPE & Healthcare Workers With SEIU 1021 SF Local Leaders
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MxyTGFLtu0
Reign Of Terror Against SF SEIU 1021 DPH Members & Other City Workers: Speakout At SF Labor Council
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JN-f8HeN3w&t=7s
SEIU 1021 SFGH Workers Speakout! Stop Racism, Union Busting & Privatization Of SFGH Pharmacy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1XzRrzB9ZI
Racism, Outsourcing and Retaliation At SF Civil Service Commission With HR Director Micki Callahan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqNhPRQeHGk&t=34s
On Day Before Women’s Day, SF City Workers Rally & Speak Out Against Discrimination, Racism, Privatization & Outsourcing
https://youtu.be/GeBcv4rFZfM
SF General Hospital Workers Fed Up With Short Staffing Threatening Patient Safety While Millions Go For Outsourcing
https://youtu.be/2-mA-9oVb-M
Stop The Attacks! SEIU 1021 Members Speak Out At CCSF Civil Service Commission On Retaliation & Discrimination
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMZJlCt--t0&t=6s
Racism, Outsourcing, and Retaliation At SF Civil Service Commission With HR Director Micki Callahan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqNhPRQeHGk
At a hearing of the San Francisco Civil Service Commission on December 17, 2918, the issue of racism, outsourcing and retaliation came to the fore. The Commission which is charged with making sure that the Human Resources Department carries out its work has allowed HR Director Micki Callahan to retaliate against whistleblowers.
Stop The Racist Terror Against African American Workers-Speakout At SF BOS Special Meeting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkoYXzKO_so&t=537s
SF SEIU 1021 Rank & File Leaders/Members Speak Out Against Racism At BOS Meeting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XHt2wbvOD4&t=89s
Workers Speak Out At SF Supervisor’s Meeting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-kmrjrxvF4&t=275s
SFGH "Zuckerberg" SEIU 1021 Workers & Community Protest DPH Privatization, Racism & Union Busting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpxZcETKB6o
Stop Racist Discrimination And Workplace Bullying At SF DPH! SEIU 1021 Members & SF Residents Rally & Speakout
https://youtu.be/iNs4zHn96rI
2/25 Friday Press Conference/Rally SF MTA 250A Transit Workers & Car Cleaners Protest Bullying, Discrimination & Illegal Attacks Against Workers
Press Conference/Rally On Systemic Racism, Bullying & Illegal Physical & Verbal Abuse Against SF MTA Workers
Friday February 25, 2022 11:30 AM
SF MTA Headquarters
1 South Van Ness & Market St.
San Francisco, CA
SF MTA 250a transit worker April Chandler Shannon and other workers have faced a systemic verbal and even physical assaults on the job.
They have also faced retaliation for speaking out against health and safety violations.
Other workers including car cleaners have also faced illegal discrimination and health and safety violations. Numerous complaints have been made to SF City agencies but the City regulatory and oversight agencies have failed to do their job and defend the health and safety of the workers.
Cal-OSHA and other state agencies have also failed to address these issues.
SF MTA employees will speak out about the specific issues and call on the management to be held accountable to these labor and human rights violations.
This is also not new in the City and County of San Francisco which has a long record of systemic racism and ethnic cleansing of CCSF jobs along with
outsourcing and contracting out of jobs. Members of the SF Board of Supervisors and SF Mayor London Breed have also been informed of these issues and
they are part of the labor negotiations with the City & County of San Francisco.
Sponsored by United Front Committee For A Labor Party
http://www.ufclp.org
info(at)ufclp.org
Black employees condemn S.F. Department of Human Resources for silencing discrimination complaints
By Juan Carlos Lara | Oct 2, 2020 |
Cedric Jackson (left) and Dante King (right) address the crowd in front of City Hall on Oct. 2. Photo by Juan Carlos Lara
Dozens of Black San Francisco employees, undeterred by hot weather and harmful air quality, rallied at San Francisco City Hall Friday afternoon to call for justice after recent revelations of a Department of Human Resources manager purportedly forging a fraudulent settlement agreement for a Black MTA employee.
“I worked directly in DHR for four years,” said Dante King, the main speaker at the event, who is now with the MTA. “I will say this: During my time there I got to see people do things that undermined fairness, that undermined equality.”
The Black Employee Alliance and Coalition Against Anti-Blackness hosted roughly 50 participants at the rally at City Hall calling for accountability for city officials. The latter, they allege, are complicit in the suppression of discrimination complaints by Black city workers.
Organizers specifically named Micki Callahan, the director of the Department of Human Resources, and Linda Simon, the director of Equal Employment Opportunity, an office within the department. .
Mission Local recently spoke with San Francisco departmental HR officials who said that discrimination complaints by employees were purposefully edited by the department to downplay the gravity of the accusations, then often disregarded entirely.
King said that Callahan and Simon were either involved in the EEO manager Rachel Sherman’s alleged forgery scheme , or were incompetent in not knowing it was happening.
Two days ago, a lawyer for Simon issued cease and desist letters to members of the Black Employee Alliance and the Coalition Against Anti-Blackness. The groups defiantly disseminated the letters to their members and city officials.
“Ms. Simon had no knowledge of Sherman’s actions. She did not condone Sherman’s actions or attempt to cover them up.For you to claim otherwise, and to assert, for example, that Ms. Simon was involved in ‘criminal activity,’ is defamatory,” the letter from Simon’s lawyer said.
Organizers replied to Simon saying, “The Black Employee Alliance and Coalition Against Anti-Blackness will not relent from our quest for change, accountability, and transparency. We will also not be intimidated by San Francisco City Officials or leaders who decide we are too vocal and/or ‘problematic.’ As Black people, we have been (and continue to be) forced to be silent about our oppression and our oppressors. This is a blatant example and act of that oppression.”
King, who frequently joked at the event that he might be fired for speaking out, has a history of calling attention to racism within the city government.
Last April, King sent an email to San Francisco Police Department Chief Bill Scott and his then-supervisor, Department of Human Resources Director Micki Callahan, accusing SFPD’s ranks of containing widespread, drastic anti-Black sentiment.
King, who was then on the tail end of two years as an implicit bias trainer for the department, recalled an incident in which a group of SFPD captains and lieutenants took him to lunch, where they told him officers would respond better to the training if King were white.
“We would be able to hear you better. Most of the people in the room would be able to hear you better,” King recollected one officer telling him.
Although the name of that officer was redacted when city officials released the document to the San Francisco Examiner, the paper later confirmed that officer to be Captain Jason Cherniss.
Organizers invited multiple city officials to speak at today’s event, including Mayor London Breed and more than half of city supervisors, whom they see as having, “demonstrated consistent support for the challenges faced by Black employees and residents of San Francisco,” according to an email announcing the rally.
Supervisors Shamann Walton and Matt Haney were the only city officials to accept the invitation to speak at the rally. Photo by Juan Carlos Lara.
Supervisors Shamann Walton and Matt Haney were the only ones to actually take up the invitation.
“It is not okay that Black employees have complaints that are not taken seriously. It is not okay to go to work and be mistreated,” said Walton, the lone Black supervisor. Addressing organizers, Walton said, “Thank you for doing this today and calling attention to an issue that has been going on too long.”
Haney acknowledged the “brutal” conditions of the day, citing the participants’ attendance despite the heat advisory, air quality advisory and ongoing pandemic, as evidence of their commitment.
“It shouldn’t take revelations of a scandal for us to say, ‘you are absolutely right, we believe you and we need to do better,’” Haney said.
Several Black city employees in attendance also spoke regarding their own experiences of racism in the workplace.
Adrienne Heim, who works for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and is a member of the Black and African American Affinity Group, pointed out that Black MTA workers were disproportionately charged with disciplinary offences.
Dennis Mars, who has worked for the Department of Public Health since 2014, says he applied for two promotions and was passed over twice despite having never been late, never missed a day, and also received the top score on a test among supervisor applicants, and receiving sixth place on a managers test.
Dennis Mars (right) speaks to the crowd about the discrimination he has faced while working at the Department of Public Health. Photo by Juan Carlos Lara.
Mars said one of the people who got the promotion instead of him has only been at the Department of Public Health for about two years, and the other scored much lower on the applicant test. Mars believes he did not receive the promotion as retaliation for filing an EEO complaint against a manager for failing to take action when a coworker threatened Mars with violence in 2018.
The City Attorney’s office is investigating the forged settlement agreement. The District Attorney’s office has also expressed interest in doing so.
We’re at the demonstrations so that you don’t have to be.
CCSF Black Workers & Supporters Speak Out At SF City Hall Against Systemic Racism And Corruption
https://youtu.be/rVZ7zyc4gjY
Black City & County of San Francisco workers rallied on October 2, 2020 and spoke out in front to San
Francisco City Hall about the systemic racism and continuing attacks on Black workers in San Francisco.
They also discussed the exposure of corruption and criminal activity at the Department of Human Resources
run by Micki Callahan.
Also Laborers Local 261, TWU 200 and TWU 250 participated and spoke about the need for the labor
movement to fight the systemic racism.
The rally was sponsorsed by SF Black Emplooyee Alliance, Coalition Against Anti Blackness, SEIU 1021 AFRAM, Misc. SFGH Chapter,
SF Black Leadership Forum, Laborers 261, SF Police Officers For Justice and SF Chapter NAACP
Additional media:
Bombshell: SF HR director claims ‘rogue employee’ forged settlement with Black worker
https://missionlocal.org/.../bombshell-san-francisco.../...
Email explains ‘terrible decisions’ behind SF HR manager forging deal
Rebecca Sherman afraid to side with Black city worker on claims
https://www.sfexaminer.com/.../email-explains.../...
MICHAEL BARBA
Union Busting, Union Rights, Racism, Covid/PPE & Healthcare Workers With SEIU 1021 SF Local Leaders
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MxyTGFLtu0
Reign Of Terror Against SF SEIU 1021 DPH Members & Other City Workers: Speakout At SF Labor Council
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JN-f8HeN3w&t=7s
SEIU 1021 SFGH Workers Speakout! Stop Racism, Union Busting & Privatization Of SFGH Pharmacy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1XzRrzB9ZI
Racism, Outsourcing and Retaliation At SF Civil Service Commission With HR Director Micki Callahan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqNhPRQeHGk&t=34s
On Day Before Women’s Day, SF City Workers Rally & Speak Out Against Discrimination, Racism, Privatization & Outsourcing
https://youtu.be/GeBcv4rFZfM
SF General Hospital Workers Fed Up With Short Staffing Threatening Patient Safety While Millions Go For Outsourcing
https://youtu.be/2-mA-9oVb-M
Stop The Attacks! SEIU 1021 Members Speak Out At CCSF Civil Service Commission On Retaliation & Discrimination
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMZJlCt--t0&t=6s
Racism, Outsourcing, and Retaliation At SF Civil Service Commission With HR Director Micki Callahan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqNhPRQeHGk
At a hearing of the San Francisco Civil Service Commission on December 17, 2918, the issue of racism, outsourcing and retaliation came to the fore. The Commission which is charged with making sure that the Human Resources Department carries out its work has allowed HR Director Micki Callahan to retaliate against whistleblowers.
Stop The Racist Terror Against African American Workers-Speakout At SF BOS Special Meeting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkoYXzKO_so&t=537s
SF SEIU 1021 Rank & File Leaders/Members Speak Out Against Racism At BOS Meeting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XHt2wbvOD4&t=89s
Workers Speak Out At SF Supervisor’s Meeting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-kmrjrxvF4&t=275s
SFGH "Zuckerberg" SEIU 1021 Workers & Community Protest DPH Privatization, Racism & Union Busting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpxZcETKB6o
Stop Racist Discrimination And Workplace Bullying At SF DPH! SEIU 1021 Members & SF Residents Rally & Speakout
https://youtu.be/iNs4zHn96rI
For more information:
http://www.ufclp.org
Added to the calendar on Thu, Feb 24, 2022 10:35AM
Add Your Comments
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$75.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network