Federal Govt.: Julie Myers Offers Another Apology for Employee’s Blackface Costume

According to the Associated Press (link), Assistant Secretary Julie Myers offered another apology for an employee’s blackface costume in a letter to Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) (link).

I am not sure that Myers’s apology is real. I find it unacceptable. Here it is (link):

The employee wore dreadlocks, dark makeup and prison stripes. Myers and two other managers awarded him “most original costume” and Myers posed for a photo with him.

“Although I was not aware at the time of the contest that the employee disguised his skin color, I believe that it was inappropriate for me to recognize any individual wearing an escaped prisoner costume,” Myers said.

Myers apologizes for the prisoner costume but denies the fact that she know that the employee was wearing dark makeup (I am sure that a check of the employee’s building pass photograph would have made this clear). It appears other people did know about the employee’s dark makeup, as Myers received complaints (link).

Causes for Concern & Worry: Exorbitant Airline Executive Compensation; Outsourcing of Aircraft Maintenance

Airline companies are difficult businesses to operate. Despite the challenges airline executives face in the airline industry, airline executives are not begging at street corners for food being rewarded handsomely. The employees, who cut their pay and benefits (wage concessions) for the sake of helping the company regain profitability, do not receive any share of the good fortune. The employees rightfully become offended with being left out:

American Airlines executives should have been celebrating last week during their annual stockholders’ meeting, the first in six years at which they could spotlight an annual profit.
Instead, chief executive Gerard J. Arpey spent much of the session fending off questions from irate employees. After agreeing to accept massive pay cuts in recent years to keep American flying, the employees said they were upset that the carrier’s top officers have been given stock-based bonuses worth millions of dollars. One employee at the meeting called Arpey and other executives “arrogant, greedy, selfish and heartless individuals.“

The goal of a firm is to increase the price of its common stock. Simply put, the labor union’s wage concessions helped increase the price of the airlines’ common stock (and the value of airline executives’ stock options), thus, there is little chance that employees will see their former wage rates again. Indeed, employees may be asked for more wage concessions.

The common stock price goal ignores the fact that airline executives cannot operate the airline businesses they manage (imagine a CEO preparing ticket holders to board a flight as a gate agent). Skilled, devoted, and fairly compensated employees are necessary to run the day-to-day operations of an airline: the pilots, the flight attendants, the ground crew, the ticket and gate agent crew, and the aircraft mechanics. [I'm not an expert on airline operations, so I hope I got all sectors of the vital airline labor pool.] All of these jobs require skill and talent, some have the additional responsibility of safeguarding human lives (pilots, aircraft mechanics, in particular).

A disconcerting related issue: airline maintenance is being increasingly outsourced to mechanics outside of the airlines in the United States and also outside the United States to reduce costs (and increase common stock prices). Where does safety of the persons flying in the airplanes fit in the equation?

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stated that outsourcing airline maintenance in and outside of the United States does not pose a safety risk. The Inspector General of the Department of Transportation (DOT) stated in testimony that the FAA has to have more vigorous oversight [DOT OIG testimony].

I am already equivocal about flying (it’s disconcerting to be so high above the ground), so this move to increase outsourcing by airlines without a equally robust inspection system only makes the situation worse. I prefer well-paid, skilled mechanics who work for the airlines for such a vital job.

BCI Coca-Cola Bottling Co. v. EEOC

UPDATE [5:35 PM 4/12/07]: This case has been dismissed. The commentary below is still applicable because a similar issue will be considered in Sawicki v. Morgan State University instead.

This is a deceptively innocent looking case with surprisingly powerful consequences to those of us who work for an organization. I will summarize the case here, but for all of the documents, go here.

Albuquerque, New Mexico The case begins with a Friday request from a district sales manager, Cesar Grado, through supervisor Jeff Katt, that Stephen Peters, a senior Coca-Cola merchandiser (the person who sets up the Coca-Cola product for sale in supermarkets), work on Sunday (one of his scheduled days off). Mr. Peters informs Mr. Grado that he had plans for Sunday and could not work on Sunday.

This set off a string of events that led to the termination of Mr. Peters. From the facts of the case: Mr. Grado decided to seek advice from the Human Resources Department. Ms. Sherry Pederson (office in Albuquerque) was out of the office on Friday afternoon, so Mr. Grado called Ms. Pat Edgar in Phoenix. Mr. Grado said that he expected Mr. Peters was going to refuse to come to work on Sunday, and asked whether he could require Mr. Peters to come in on his day off. Specifically, he told Ms. Edgar that Mr. Peters planned to call in sick on Sunday. Ms. Edgar found that prospect “unacceptable” because, under BCI Coca Cola policy, an employee may not call in sick two days in advance. She advised Mr. Grado to “find out what the situation was” and, unless Mr. Peters had a “compelling reason” why he could not come to work, to order Mr. Peters to work on Sunday. She told Mr. Grado to characterize the instruction as a “direct order” and to say that failure to comply would amount to insubordination, which is grounds for termination.

All told, Mr. Peters did not work on that Sunday, as he was ill. Mr. Peters did call in sick to his supervisor, Mr. Katt. On Monday, Ms. Edgar made the decision to terminate Mr. Peters for insubordination, in spite of a previous disciplinary action taken against Mr. Peters for taking leave to be a pallbearer at a funeral for his fiancee’s son (who he had raised as his own for years). The management told him that was not a good reason for not showing up to work, because the deceased was not his biological son.

Afterwards, Ms. Edgar stated that she did not know Mr. Peters was Black. All of her information to decide to terminate Mr. Peters came from Mr. Grado, who had an antagonistic relationship with his Black employees. The workforce of BCI in Albuquerque was more than 60% Hispanic (not a race but national origin), while fewer than 2% were Black.

Commentary

At bottom, this case reflects the sad state of affairs in the nation’s organizations. Namely, the near total power given to the employer to act wantonly towards employees. The West Publishing Company indexes “employment discrimination law” under “master & servant.” Master & servant has strong allusions to slavery, which in my observations, grounds the attitude of organization management towards employees. Careful examination of employment law cases will bear this out. One example is Jackson v. Flint Ink (before being vacated). Outside a few narrow exceptions (like Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts and other similar laws), employers are given a free hand to do with employees as they see fit (except there is a collective bargaining agreement (that is, a union).

The crux of BCI Coca Cola is the failure of the human resources department to do a proper investigation. What was done here is an investigation in name only. BCI’s human resources department never called Mr. Peters (on the Friday) to get his side of the situation. A fact noted by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Remember, too, that no matter how neutral the “human resources” office may sound, the department is an arm of the organization’s management, not for the benefit of the organization’s employees.

The corporations in the friend of the court briefs to the Supreme Court declare that requiring them to do real investigations would be too costly. I disagree. It would not take too much effort to call Mr. Peters before giving advice to Mr. Grado on Friday. In order to make good decisions, the decision maker must have all of the facts. What BCI did is wrong and should not be given sanction by the Supreme Court.

Oral arguments for BCI Coca Cola v. EEOC are scheduled for April 18, 2007.