Whistleblowers! Forestry Continues its discriminatory practices & USDA's Silence

Hosted by Marti Oakley

Whistleblowers! Is presented in Coordination with Marcel Reid & the Whistleblowers Summit July 27-29th in Washington D.C.

Our guests are two more female firefighters:  Full bio's at www.ppjg.me

Darlene Hall:  In 2013, three months after her former male supervisor of six years retired, she received her first of two promotions. He had been providing potential employers false information about her performance when contacted as a reference check. During that time Darlene worked for him she applied for over 50 job promotions with no success until the supervisor retired.

 On several occasions Darlene traveled to Washington, D.C. and talked personally with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell about the discriminatory practices against female firefighters and others. She also met with other assigned personnel from the Department of Agriculture and Forest Service to discuss these matters. She met with members of the House and Senate. To date nothing has been done to clean up the widespread, blatant discrimination and reprisal.

Lesa Donnelly: While working for the US Forest Service, Lesa filed a sex discrimination class action lawsuit in 1995 (Donnelly v. Glickman; Donnelly v. Veneman) on behalf of 6000 Forest Service women in California. The issues were sexual harassment, hostile work environment and reprisal. The federal court certified the class in 1996. Working with a team of attorneys, Lesa was part of the Settlement Negotiation Team. The Federal Court approved a Consent Decree in 2000 that provided injunctive relief and individual settlements to class members. The Federal Court appointed Lesa as a Monitor for oversight and implementation of the “Donnelly Settlement Agreement.” The Consent Decree ended in 2006.