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Indybay Feature

Reminder: Picket aginst City Racism Friday 1/16/04

by bv
Picket against city racism, environmental racism, and contacting out! January
16, 2004. City Hall (Polk Street steps)
4:30 PM.
Will PUC stop racism at wastewater plants?

Picket & rally Friday January 16, 4:30pm, City Hall steps
http://www.sfbayview.com/122403/pucstop122403.shtml

by Roland Sheppard
San Francisco - On Dec. 1, Anita Labossiere, along with this reporter,
expressed some of our concerns to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
that overt racism - replete with hanging nooses - continues to raise its ugly
head in the city´s wastewater, or sewage treatment, plants.
Placing a noose where a Black worker will find it is becoming an
increasingly common form of racist terrorism in workplaces around the country. The nooses
are intended as a reminder of the thousands of Blacks lynched by Whites just
a few decades ago. Both Anita, who found a noose in her desk, and fellow
worker, stationary engineer Carmi Johnson, are victims of noose terrorism at the PUC
´s wastewater plants.
Anita told the PUC, "I have been working for the San Francisco Water
Pollution Control Bureau for over 23 years as the only African American supervising
chemist. In the City and County of San Francisco, there is a well-organized
plan by the managers to harass any minorities, minority supervisors and employees
who support Black workers.
"After the article I wrote, published in the Bay View newspaper last Aug.
20, `Working for the City is a living hell: Dealing with racism in the
wastewater plants,´ I have been kept away from work by the managers at PUC. They are
using every legal and illegal trick to keep me from returning to work from my
personal leave," Anita testified, adding, "I should never have to work in this
living HELL! You are damned if you do and damned if you don´t.
"The following lyrics from the song `Strange Fruit´ explain my feelings. I
feel like I am a strange fruit swingin´ in the Southern breeze: `Southern
trees bear a strange fruit/ Blood on the leaves and blood at the root/ Black
bodies swingin´ in the Southern breeze/ Strange fruit hangin´ from the poplar
trees/ Pastoral scene of the gallant South. ...´
"PUC Personnel has refused to allow me to return to work. I was on a leave
of absence brought on by stress. There are many Black employees throughout the
City who are going through what I am going through. My case is very typical of
how Mayor Willie Brown has ignored all of the Black employees´ concerns, even
allowing them to be fired on trumped up charges. We have not gotten any help
from Mayor Brown."
Anita concluded with a call to action: "The PUC needs to conduct an
immediate and open investigation and hearing about this racism in the water and
wastewater plants."
We were both well received by the PUC, and they agreed that this is an
important matter. They stated, for the record, that they will investigate this
intolerable situation within the wastewater plants.
But the truth of the matter is that the PUC´s department managers have
implemented a rule known as Sec. 120.22 Compulsory Sick Leave in order to keep
Anita from going back to work.
On Dec. 15, she was forcibly removed from the job under this city rule, even
though she had been accepted back to work earlier in the day. An absent, so
far unnamed, supervisor evoked rule 120.22.1.
That section of the city rules states: "An appointing officer or designee
who has reason to believe that an employee is not medically or physically
competent to perform assigned duties, and if allowed to continue in employment or
return from leave may represent a risk to coworkers, the public and the
employee, may require the employee to present a medical report from a physician
designated by the Human Resources Director certifying the employee´s medical or
physical competency to perform the required duties."
In fact, this rule was put in operation after Anita wrote her article for
this newspaper on racism in the wastewater plants and was already on stress
leave due to the racist environment that is allowed to exist and fester at the
plant.
The way the rule is being interpreted in Anita´s case, the "appointing
officer or designee" has the right to discriminate against any employee. Every
employee who gets injured on the job, under this interpretation, could be
prevented from returning to work.
In this case, it is simply another type of noose that is left dangling
before every city worker - especially those, like Anita, who have "blown the whistle
" on racism. PUC managers even dare to implement this policy in the heart of
the largest remaining Black neighborhood in San Francisco!
The Southeast sewage treatment plant would never have been built in Bay View
Hunters Point if African Americans - both skilled professionals like Anita
and blue collar workers - had not been promised jobs and equal opportunity to
rise through the ranks. The Black community, in one of its strongest
demonstrations of unity in San Francisco history, stopped construction of the plant,
protesting that the neighborhood was already being poisoned by the PG&E power
plant and other pollution generators and that race discrimination pervaded city
employment.
Only when the city promised to minimize pollution and hire residents was
construction allowed to proceed. Despite repeated protests over the years, the
city has made little effort to fulfill either promise.
Anita is a strong person and, so far, she is standing up to and enduring the
attacks against her. If the Black community stands up with her, she will win
and all of San Francisco will gain.
On Monday, Dec. 29 (picket pstponed to Friday, January 16,) at 4:30 p.m., a
picket line and rally will be held on the steps of City Hall to address this
issue. All are welcome to come and raise their voices.
We must remain ever vigilant so that a proper investigation is carried out
and that the PUC does not just "go through the motions" of an investigation
and that racism in city government is rooted out and punished.
A Town Hall Community-Labor Speakout will be held on Saturday, Feb. 7, from
11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Green House, 4919 Third St., between Palou and
Quesada, to demand this investigation by the PUC and an end to racism in city
employment. For more information, call (415) 867-0628.
Email Roland Sheppard at Rolandgarret [at] aol.com.
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