August 2, 2024
Dear Members,
Some of you may recall that back in late December 2023 one of the Local’s Business Agents, Latasha, was harassed in an open meeting at Midway and called a “cunt” in front of everyone. When she confronted the individual she was ordered by the City managers to leave the premises and the police were called. We immediately brought this to the attention of the Commissioner of Aviation, Jamie Rhea, and the Deputy Mayor of Labor, Bridget Early. We were told the Department couldn’t do anything because they had sent this to the Inspector General’s office, which months later we found out through someone else, that in fact CDA had the case and was holding it. I contacted them and called them out on it and finally after admitting that they did have the case they asked for a written statement from LaTasha. Our attorney drafted the statement they asked for and until this day, NOTHING! So, the only conclusion that I can take from all of this is that the Department of Aviation and the Mayor’s Office think it’s OK to call someone a “cunt” in an open meeting. So going forward none of them should be at all surprised when I address them with that same name.
Fast forward to late February of this year when another of the Local’s Business Agents, Lee, was called by a member to represent her at the Bureau of Forestry main office at 23rd and Ashland. One of the supervisors onsite did not like the fact that Lee was questioning the length of the writeup, so the coward supervisor called the police on Lee and stated there was an unidentified black man in the building refusing to leave. The police came and obviously were not happy that they were called away from doing something to serve the public and brought into this total nonsense. Again, we immediately brought this to the attention of the Deputy Mayor and this time, DSS Commissioner Cole Stallard, and just like with the CDA incident nothing has been done by the City. The same excuse that the Inspector General is involved, which I am being told is not, but the cowards over as DSS, just like their counterparts at CDA are not only condoning this, but by their lack of action are actually promoting such behavior. If the Deputy Commissioner over at Forestry wasn’t so busy making obscene posts on Facebook maybe he would be more concerned about what is going on in his shop, but why should he be, there are no consequences for them, only for the laborers. You can see some of the Deputy Commissioner’s posts here. https://videos.files.wordpress.com/KKl…/malcolmadfulls.mp4
DSS and DHR have been made aware of the Deputy Commissioner’s posts and still crickets, yet when a couple of Laborers attempt to make comic video posts on tiktok they are dragged in, belittled, scolded and suspended.
Fast forward again to Wednesday, 7/17. While LaTasha was at DSS District 3 for pre-disciplinary hearings, she was verbally and physically confronted by one of the employees there. She proceeded to loudly ask for help in a building full of managers, but she was ignored by every last one of them. In fact, the aggressor ended up calling the police and LaTasha was made out to be the offender. We have the police report so there is no hiding this one DSS. Your managers are cowards to let anyone, let alone a black female, that at best is a hundred pounds soaking wet, be treated like that and they just ignore it. We were called by DSS almost two hours after the incident and never heard another word about it until we blew them up. DSS and the Deputy Mayor were notified of our disgust with what has been happening to our Business Agents way too often now. We have yet to hear back from the Mayor’s Office on this latest matter. That employee was terminated for several different incidents that happened prior to this incident but that does not change the fact that DSS and the Mayor’s office has done nothing to change the disrespect and disregard of their managers towards Local 1001. So, they leave us no choice but to believe that the Mayor thinks this is acceptable behavior by his department heads and his managers.
The Mayor is always preaching about how minorities are treated differently, yet in his own house it’s OK to call women “cunts” and call the police on not only a black male but a black female union official as well, while they are preforming their duty of representing our members. From someone who himself was a union organizer this is disgusting behavior. Mr. Mayor it’s time to stop pretending you’re a man of the people when you do NOTHING about what continues to happen in your own house.
We have filed Unfair Labor Practice charges on these incidents and will continue to do whatever it takes to enforce our contract and represent our members.
Here’s a general message to all of DSS, CDA and the Mayor. Local 1001 is not backing down, call the police, call the national guard, call whoever the f**k you want.
We’re Stronger Together, We’re Union, and We Ain’t Going Nowhere!
Bob Chianelli
Business Manager
LiUNA Local 1001