BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 X-WR-CALNAME:www.indybay.org PRODID:-//indybay/ical// v1.0//EN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:Indybay-18848211 SEQUENCE:19009146 CREATED:20220224T183500Z DESCRIPTION:Stop Racist Attacks, Discrimination and Union Busting By SF MTA Bosses & City\n\n2/25 Friday Press Conference/Rally SF MTA 250A Transit Workers & Car Cleaners Protest Bullying, Discrimination & Illegal Attacks Against Workers\n\nPress Conference/Rally On Systemic Racism, Bullying & Illegal Physical & Verbal Abuse Against SF MTA Workers\n\nFriday February 25, 2022 11:30 AM\n\nSF MTA Headquarters\n 1 South Van Ness & Market St.\n San Francisco, CA\n\n\nSF MTA 250a transit worker April Chandler Shannon and other workers have faced a systemic verbal and even physical assaults on the job.\nThey have also faced retaliation for speaking out against health and safety violations.\nOther 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.\nCal-OSHA and other state agencies have also failed to address these issues.\nSF 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.\nThis 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\noutsourcing 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\nthey are part of the labor negotiations with the City & County of San Francisco.\n\n\nSponsored by United Front Committee For A Labor Party\nwww.ufclp.org\ninfo(at)ufclp.org\n\nBlack employees condemn S.F. Department of Human Resources for silencing discrimination complaints\n\nBy Juan Carlos Lara | Oct 2, 2020 | \nCedric Jackson (left) and Dante King (right) address the crowd in front of City Hall on Oct. 2. Photo by Juan Carlos Lara\nDozens 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. \n“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.”\nThe 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. \nOrganizers 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. . \nMission 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. \nKing 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. \nTwo 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. \n“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. \nOrganizers 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.” \nKing, 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. \nLast 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. \nKing, 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. \n“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. \nAlthough 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. \nOrganizers 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. \nSupervisors Shamann Walton and Matt Haney were the only city officials to accept the invitation to speak at the rally. Photo by Juan Carlos Lara.\nSupervisors Shamann Walton and Matt Haney were the only ones to actually take up the invitation. \n“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.”\nHaney 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. \n“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. \nSeveral Black city employees in attendance also spoke regarding their own experiences of racism in the workplace. \nAdrienne 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.\nDennis 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. \nDennis 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.\nMars 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. \nThe City Attorney’s office is investigating the forged settlement agreement. The District Attorney’s office has also expressed interest in doing so.\nWe’re at the demonstrations so that you don’t have to be. \n\n\nCCSF Black Workers & Supporters Speak Out At SF City Hall Against Systemic Racism And Corruption\nhttps://youtu.be/rVZ7zyc4gjY\nBlack City & County of San Francisco workers rallied on October 2, 2020 and spoke out in front to San \nFrancisco City Hall about the systemic racism and continuing attacks on Black workers in San Francisco. \nThey also discussed the exposure of corruption and criminal activity at the Department of Human Resources\nrun by Micki Callahan.\nAlso Laborers Local 261, TWU 200 and TWU 250 participated and spoke about the need for the labor \nmovement to fight the systemic racism.\nThe rally was sponsorsed by SF Black Emplooyee Alliance, Coalition Against Anti Blackness, SEIU 1021 AFRAM, Misc. SFGH Chapter,\nSF Black Leadership Forum, Laborers 261, SF Police Officers For Justice and SF Chapter NAACP\nAdditional media:\nBombshell: SF HR director claims ‘rogue employee’ forged settlement with Black worker\nhttps://missionlocal.org/.../bombshell-san-francisco.../...\nEmail explains ‘terrible decisions’ behind SF HR manager forging deal\nRebecca Sherman afraid to side with Black city worker on claims\nhttps://www.sfexaminer.com/.../email-explains.../...\nMICHAEL BARBA\nUnion Busting, Union Rights, Racism, Covid/PPE & Healthcare Workers With SEIU 1021 SF Local Leaders\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MxyTGFLtu0\nReign Of Terror Against SF SEIU 1021 DPH Members & Other City Workers: Speakout At SF Labor Council\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JN-f8HeN3w&t=7s\nSEIU 1021 SFGH Workers Speakout! Stop Racism, Union Busting & Privatization Of SFGH Pharmacy\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1XzRrzB9ZI\nRacism, Outsourcing and Retaliation At SF Civil Service Commission With HR Director Micki Callahan\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqNhPRQeHGk&t=34s\nOn Day Before Women’s Day, SF City Workers Rally & Speak Out Against Discrimination, Racism, Privatization & Outsourcing\nhttps://youtu.be/GeBcv4rFZfM\nSF General Hospital Workers Fed Up With Short Staffing Threatening Patient Safety While Millions Go For Outsourcing\nhttps://youtu.be/2-mA-9oVb-M\nStop The Attacks! SEIU 1021 Members Speak Out At CCSF Civil Service Commission On Retaliation & Discrimination\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMZJlCt--t0&t=6s\nRacism, Outsourcing, ​and Retaliation At SF Civil Service Commission With HR Director Micki Callahan\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqNhPRQeHGk\nAt 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. \nStop The Racist Terror Against African American Workers-Speakout At SF BOS Special Meeting\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkoYXzKO_so&t=537s\nSF SEIU 1021 Rank & File Leaders/Members Speak Out Against Racism At BOS Meeting\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XHt2wbvOD4&t=89s\nWorkers Speak Out At SF Supervisor’s Meeting\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-kmrjrxvF4&t=275s\nSFGH "Zuckerberg" SEIU 1021 Workers & Community Protest DPH Privatization, Racism & Union Busting\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpxZcETKB6o\nStop Racist Discrimination And Workplace Bullying At SF DPH! SEIU 1021 Members & SF Residents Rally & Speakout\nhttps://youtu.be/iNs4zHn96rI\n https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2022/02/24/18848211.php SUMMARY:Stop Racist Attacks, Discrimination and Union Busting By SF MTA Bosses & City LOCATION:SF MTA Headquarters\n1 South Van Ness/Market St.\nSan Francisco URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2022/02/24/18848211.php DTSTART:20220225T193000Z DTEND:20220225T203000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR