Retirement of Poteau District Manager Prompted by Union Representation of Employees Tired of Racial Slurs, Ethnic Slurs and Sex Discrimination! (view entire complaint)

 
 
Area Director, Dianne Vaughn, announced in a June staff meeting with Poteau employees that District Manager, Jack Armstrong, would be on leave until his retirement on June 30th.  District Manager Armstrong's behaviour prompted an EEO complaint filed by the Union on behalf of employees in early June 2008.

Poteau SSA has 13 bargaining unit employees: 2 men; 11 women of whom 2 are brand new. Eight of the nine female employees requested EEO Counselling after years of enduring discriminatory treatment in work assignments and a hostile work environment created by the manager's angry outbursts, racial slurs, ethnic slurs and intemperate, insensitive comments.

 
The retirement of Jack Armstrong will hopefully be the first step in bringing Poteau management into the mainstream of social consciousness in 21st century America, BUT the Union and Poteau employees are still waiting for seven of the eight initial EEO Counseling Reports.  These have not yet been issued by CREO. No initial report = NO INVESTIGATION.   Regional Commissioner Ramona Schuenemeyer has equally ignored the complaint, which is evident in her deleting the complaint the Union sent her WITHOUT READING IT!  

It seems to the Union that if they don't open their email and don't investigate, maybe it will go away, like the District Manager.
 

 

    SSA Routinely Violates Article 1 of COMMON COURTESY: Clicking Delete to Avoid the Union Results in Unfair Labor Practice
 
SSA Regional Commissioner Ramona Schuenemeyer of the Dallas Region may not know that deleting emails without reading them is not only bad email etiquette, it can constitute an Unfair Labor Practice.  Local 2505 has filed two ULPs with the FLRA over Ramona's deleting information and bargaining requests sent by 2505 President, Ralph de Juliis, without opening them.
 
Ramona also deleted her copy of the Poteau EEO complaint without reading it, leading the Union to believe that the problem may be less of an email etiquette issue and more of an issue with AFGE and the employees we represent.
 
Those of us familiar with Ramona may know that she often introduces herself with  "My name is Ramona and I'm a public servant."
 
AFGE members and officers are public servants as well.  Unlike Ramona, we are required to go above and beyond talking the talk, and are not rated successful unless we also walk the walk.
 
We receive and are expected to actually read numerous emails from Ramona, in addition to watching mandatory tapings of her messages.  We should be able to reasonably expect a fraction of the same courtesy. Ramona's apparent preference for one way communication with her fellow public servants is not the approach we should expect from any public official in a leadership position. 
     

Inauguration of New Local 2505 Officer

(President Ralph de Juliis swears in 2nd VP, Mary Roberts.  Click image to enlarge.)
 

AFGE Local 2505's newest officer was sworn in during the April 2008 meeting.  Mary Roberts from the Moore, OK SSA District office was elected to fill the position of 2nd Vice President of AFGE Local 2505.  The position was vacated by Carol A Lewis when Ms. Lewis assumed the mantle of Executive Vice President of the Local.  Prior to becoming 2nd Vice President, Ms. Roberts was (and still is) the Local's Health and Safety Representative in Moore.

All of us in Local 2505 look forward to working with Ms Roberts! She is bright, intelligent, energetic and enthusiastic! She will be as much of an asset to our Local and members as she is to her co-workers and the public she serves for SSA in Moore!

Please join me in welcoming Mary Roberts to the Local's Executive Board, congratulating her on her new position!

 
   

Union Clears the Air in Muskogee, and Requests Abatement Plan for Unhealthy Conditions
 

The Muskogee SSA indoor air quality survey from May 2008 noted potential health and safety problems for employees in calling for remediation of "suspect growth" (i.e., mold); removal of water damaged wall debris in air supply ducts area of HVAC Unit # 9, cleaning of that same unit's condensation coils and realignment of the outside sprinklers away from the building. 

As evidenced in the below correspondence with management, Local 2505 President is working to ensure that staff can breathe easy.

 

 

 

 

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