One year ago, I got fired for wearing a union button on my uniform.
A few weeks ago, the National Labor Relations Board finally ruled in my favor, but I’m still not back on the job.
I was an active member of my union. I put notices on the bulletin boards at our office at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, where I drove shuttle buses. I’d talk to drivers about our union. I wasn’t nervous, because I wasn’t doing anything wrong, but some of the managers would say, “You can’t talk about the union when you’re on the clock!”
I am a proud member of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1764, and was proud to drive shuttle buses in and around the NIH since 2009.
At the NIH, a company called W&T Travel contracts to provide shuttle services. The owner and CEO of the company is a man named Darnell Lee, who, I’m not kidding, was featured on CNBC show called Blue Collar Millionaires.
A guy named Sal was the union steward when I first got there. The bosses fired him for some made-up reason. He sued the company and won $79,000 but never came back. Then another guy named Charles was the steward, and he was great. He knew the law, what could be done and couldn’t be. They fired him twice and each time he won his job back. Then Gloria was the steward, and they harassed her and suspended her for wearing a union button. They fired her, too. They said she was asleep at the wheel. She wasn’t.
They do this to union folks, and nobody else.
When I got fired, my wife was nervous. We have a mortgage. We have a car payment. We have other bills. But mostly she was worried about whether I could handle it. She was concerned about my reaction. But I didn’t feel bad, because I knew I didn’t do anything wrong.
Here’s the thing. Darnell Lee has used this harassment to prevent us from getting a new union contract since 2013. We haven’t had a raise since 2012. To be a shuttle driver at NIH used to be a great job. It was a job with dignity, and people wanted to stay there. They got to know the whole place inside and out. They knew every passenger from the NIH and the entire community.
Not anymore. It’s a revolving door, but we still have our union, and we’re still trying to win. It’s not my victory. All glory goes to God. But we want justice — at NIH and beyond. W&T Travel has or had contracts to provide shuttle services for the Food and Drug Administration, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, the Pentagon, the General Service Administration, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Agriculture.
Think about that. Our tax dollars made Darnell Lee into a so-called Blue Collar Millionaire while he walked all over federal law and our freedom. That’s not right.
The National Labor Relations Board issued its ruling, but it’s only one small step forward. I’m not celebrating. This whole struggle has been a heavy load on me, but I’m grateful to God, and I’m grateful for my wife and family, and for my friends and my union brothers and sisters who stand by me. I won’t lie, though. Sometimes, it’s hard.
But along with my union family, we’re not stopping until we make it right. And in the meantime, I’m rallying and meeting with NIH drivers and standing with working people at every opportunity.
