| Primavera 1999 | |||
 From the President, Amy Gutierrez |
This is the first year that the CEA is conducting an election by
mail in May. Please return your ballot timely.Your vote counts.
|
 On Point by Gil Moreno |
|
| As the New Year began, the Chicano
Employees Association hit the ground running, working on old issues and new ones as they
arose. We have had some definite victories, and we still continue to pound away at other
concerns that affect you, our members. We have aggressively supported members who stood up against injustice as in the case involving CEA members, Manuel Gomez and Erlinda Morrissey, employees of the Department of Children and Family Services, referenced on page 4. They have both settled their cases. What really irked me was a Daily Journal article that quoted coworkers who believed that DCFS went after them because they were old and wouldn’t fight back! The department must have spent thousands of dollars on private counsel defending a case that should never have brought in the first place. Also, the CEA is working on a Web site so that anyone logging onto the Internet is able to obtain information on our association and our mission. Members will be able to visit the Web site and e-mail the board of directors, the general manager and staff. |
In 1992, I represented Joe
Ontiveros, a member who was suspended for 10 days from his position of Cement and
Concrete Finisher with ISD. At the time of the suspension, Joe had been working on
a project in the Sheriff’s Biscailuz Center. The facts leading to the suspension were as follows: Joe was preparing a form into which concrete would be poured and needed his subordinate to work overtime. Despite earlier agreeing to work overtime, the subordinate angrily refused. Joe gave him an option: stay on the job or leave. Joe didn’t want to argue with him and resumed working on the job. While Joe was down on a bended knee, hammering and nailing the form into shape, the subordinate struck him on the side of the face, leaving a gash that required several stitches. That was sucker punch number one. A deputy sheriff who was in the area pulled the guy off of Joe. Though the subordinate was fired, the department took sucker punch number two by suspending Joe. I didn’t represent Joe in his hearing because I took a brief hiatus from the CEA. Former CEA Chief Counsel Rees Lloyd represented Joe in his civil service |
||
