Excerpt
Introduction
Index
A Working Man’s Story
Build It Drive It - Make Your Get Away
Radical Rebellion - Woops
Start Living Life - It Will End Soon
Make It A Better Place To Work
Life After Death - Women Or Work
No Free Education
A New World Called West Texas
Work Is Great Marriage Not So Great
Work Is Great - Next Wife - A Better LifeLike Father Not Like Step Son
It’s Your Idea - You Pay I Can’t
Meeting Demons Head On
Work - Sold “Whoa Nelly” Work - Sold
Just Call Them Maintenance Technicians
An Electrician - That’s A ShockWild Bill Returns - Come On Back
A Permanent Job Position
A New Opportunity
Who’s The New Guy?
Drop It On My Head But Tell Me It Won’t Fall
Left In The Dark Literally
Maybe He Will Get Killed Trying
Give It More Time You Are Doing Fine
I’m Boss You’ll Go Before I do
A Supervisor’s Intentional Rejection
Age Discrimination Is Not Transparent

There is a loud thundering sound that rumbles through the air as the concrete beneath your feet shakes. The sound pounds at you as the vibration constantly flows up through your feet and legs with each step you take throughout the day. The sound and vibration feels like a passing train. The vibration is continuous and the pounding strikes with a rhythm that never stops. The sound isn’t from a weather storm or a passing train. It is made by three massive transfer stamping press machines. These machines form and cut steel sheets into molded parts by using tons of pressure. The excess steel is cut and falls away, making sounds that are greater than a child banging pots and pans together on a kitchen floor. The massive machines pressing and cutting steel into molded parts repeats the process over and over throughout each minute of the day.

There were some concerns that I had about working for Taylor Parts Company manufacturing car chassis and frame parts for one of the largest automotive manufactures in the United States. I was concerned about what might happen if any of the automotive manufactures have a major decline in sales and can’t be competitive or even stay in business? A major decline in sales meant a reduction in production ahead. It was known that in the near future Taylor Parts Company would only be operating one shift. After more than four years of working for Taylor Parts Company it was not looking like there was a stable future ahead for this company. Once again I might end up being out of a job. I had enough with changing jobs from one company to the next and starting over because they failed for any number of various reasons. I knew I could not continue starting a new job or career every few years. The next job I take will have to be my last. Before I make one more move to another job or company I am making sure, it is the right move for me to make. I am making sure the next job offer I take must be permanent and worth my time to invest my efforts in working for them.

I hoped that I had finally found an opportunity to have that perfect job working for a very stable company that has an opportunity for a stable future and growth potential, instead of looking at closing its doors in a few years. I would be doing what I want to do, it would be close to home, the pay was ok and I would be working for a company with an excellent future to invest my time and efforts in. I hope to work for this company at least for the next maybe fifteen years or until it is time for me to retire. I had to give it a try. I had enough of changing from one company to the next. Every company I worked for had to make budget cuts, was on the verge of going out of business, was sold or went broke. I felt it was time to find another job preferably an industrial maintenance position and preferably close to home. I wanted to find a job doing what I do best as a mechanic in maintenance and as a maintenance technician or even a shift supervisor.
I asked Roy about the mechanic position that was being advertised. Roy said, “What we are looking for is to hire someone for a position as a Maintenance Lead Mechanic to do preventative maintenance on the equipment and machines on the weekend night shift. The shift would be Friday, Saturday and Sunday night 7 PM to 7 AM. Three twelve hour shifts paid as 40 hours because it was a weekend shift. The first day of the week is always Sunday, so you actually work only the first and last two days of each week.”

I told Roy, “I can do that. It would be a great shift for me to work. The ad says the position is for a Mechanic. The position you are describing, is for a Lead Mechanic position. Are you telling me that the position I would be hired for would be a lead position like a class “A” mechanic’s position? I want to be sure this is not just a general mechanic position.” Roy said, “That’s right, this isn’t just a general mechanic position that you would be hired for. You would be hired to be in charge as a Maintenance Lead Mechanic. It would be your shift and you would probably have an assistant and maybe later, additional maintenance mechanics working under you.” I didn’t know that I was being interviewed by a person who is in a similar job position or one just like the position I that Roy was describing to me. I wondered why I wasn’t being interviewed for this position by Roy Proctor’s immediate supervisor Mark Lane who was the Drumme Corporation’s Plant Manager instead of a person that does the same job.

I asked Roy, “What does the job description as a Maintenance Lead Mechanic consisted of?” I thought he could easily explain that because it was the same job title and position that he held. Roy handed me a Maintenance Lead Mechanic job description sheet that was for a maintenance department position dated March 30, 2008. Roy said, “This is the Maintenance Lead Mechanic position’s job description.” The following is exactly what was written on the Maintenance Lead Mechanic job description sheet that Roy handed me:
Maintenance Lead Mechanic job description...

During the next three months I would learn more about the other maintenance department employees that I would be working with and what their backgrounds of experience were as I shared my break time with them and occasionally worked together with them. I would also learn that less than several months ago Drumme Corporation had just established what they called a maintenance department or even a need for one. I would soon realize that Drumme Corporation had absolutely no one working for them that ever worked before in any industrial maintenance department capacity or situation. Not one of them understood what a maintenance department’s function was. There was no one working here that knew how to manage this department and its employees.

Roy told Doug to take me over to where Tim Burkly was painting the center bay north wall area and put me to work. Tim Burkly was an older man who was a large and strong individual but was slow moving when he walked. Tim looked much older than me and I thought he should have been old enough to be retired. Tim told me while he explained his method of cleaning the walls that he worked mostly maintaining the fork trucks as his primary position. I was a bit confused why I would be cleaning grease off of factory walls and then painting them? I did not see how this type of work had anything to do with the Maintenance Lead Mechanic position I was hired to do.

Roy wanted to let the other employees know how he felt about the new employee named Bill. While I stopped in to use the restroom, Roy was in the office talking to Doug and Gary who were Roy’s closest friends and oldest employees. Roy was saying, “I did not want that mother to work for Drumme Coporation. He gets paid a whole lot more than any of you, even though you have been here a whole lot longer. You guys aren’t going to get any pay raise. The only way that will happen is if he quits. If he stays here he could take my job and end up as your boss one day.” I was thinking that they were really pissed off at Tim or someone I didn’t know for some reason. I quietly left and returned to where Tim and I was working.

Doug asked Roy, “Why would do you think Bill would take your job Roy.” Roy said, “The reason Bill would replace me is because of his resume. Mark thinks this Bill guy is the best choice to run this maintenance department eventually, not me. Bill’s resume say’s that he has more knowlegde and experience than any of you will ever have. Doug asked Roy, “What does his resume say?” Roy took Bill’s resume out of the file cabinet in his desk and showed it to Doug and Gary. Roy said, “It may be that Bill is much older than any of us and maybe Bill does have more experience or maybe he knows things that we don’t, but that doesn’t give the company the right to pay Bill more or make Bill your boss some day.”

Doug said, “I don’t see what difference it makes, there isn’t anything that we can do about this new guy, Bill.” Gary said, “Bullshit I‘ll get that f#@!” fired. You just tell me when. I’ll get that f#@!” in trouble and then Mark will have to fire him. Roy said, “Hold on you guys. First off, Mark can’t know about this or I’ll get fired and so will you.” Gary said, “We need to make it look like its Bill’s own fault.” Doug said, “You guys are nuts, this isn’t going to work.” Roy said, “Look all we have to do is get him pissed off and maybe start a fight. All we actually want him to do is just quit, that will be the end of it. Whatever you do don’t say anything to Mark or Tim. Tim doesn’t need to know about this. He is old and he might side with Bill so leave Tim out of it.” Doug said, “Maybe we shouldn’t say anything to Rick either.” Roy said, “Don’t worry about Rick. I will take care of him.”

Bill had no idea that Roy expected his maintenance employees to paint the entire facility, not just this one wall area. Maintenance department employees were told by Roy a few weeks before Bill was hired that if they were not busy they could work on a Roy’s “new projects” to help clean up the inside of the factory. Later, Roy would say to them, “Consider the “new projects” (such as, factory wall cleaning and painting) to be mandatory overtime because you are all going to do it.” Eventually Roy’s “new projects” became more important and more of a priority than maintaining any equipment or doing any routine maintenance on any of the CNC machines.

Roy would not care or be concerned with Bill’s job, abilities or position or even what he was hired to do. The only thing Roy cared about was his “new projects”. They were more important than anything related to maintenance as far as Roy was concerned. Rick, Doug, Gary and Tim were Roy’s only maintenance department employees before Bill was hired. Gary was another employee that Roy had working on some project over at the welding shop department the first few days of this week that Bill started working for the company. The welding shop was located across town in another building that was part of the Drumme Corporation’s need to use other facilities and buildings to meet the recent demands of the company’s growth and expansion within the previous year. Roy would never explain any of this to Bill and keep him uninformed about any of it.

Knowing that I would some day start my position as a Maintenance Lead Mechanic, I expressed my concerns about the proper equipment, lift, safety, power lockout and tag out polices, tools, etc. to Rick, Doug and Tim several times as we worked on cleaning and painting the various areas of walls in the factory, around machines and the equipment. I tried several times to ask Roy about safety, using proper equipment and applying lockout policies but he ignored me, never wanted to make time to talk with me and for some reason he never wanted to listen to anything I had to say. I knew because of the way Roy acted he had no idea about how to be a supervisor. All of my suggestions fell on deaf ears when I talked to the rest of the guys. I thought it was probably because I wasn’t seen by them as a lead person at the time. Roy always told Rick he was the assigned lead person all of the time. I was always told by Doug, that we just were not going to get any special lift or equipment to do this job. They both always said, “There was no real concern for proper lock out and tag out procedure to be followed. We had to make due with what we had available.”

Even within the Age Discrimination laws it states that to prove discrimination of one individual it is very difficult and not always possible. Does that mean just to let corporations’ getaway with it? When an Age Discrimination law is considered to have been violated against only one individual should that individual not be represented under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 why would it not represent only one individual? Who was that small woman that sat of a bus and refused to get off of it? Rosa Parks called the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement. Her arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a bus triggered the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 and 1956 and set in motion the test case for the desegregation of public transportation. Who was the man that said, “I have a dream?” Martin Luther King, Jr., Washington, DC, on August 28, 1963.

I had never been unemployed for longer than two or three weeks in all of my years of working. Immediately after being terminated by Drumme Corporation I was blacklisted and unable to be given so much as an interview from about 2500 plus job applications for maintenance positions in which I have applied for during the last year. The reason I believe that I have been somehow black listed was because of the relationship that the HR managers and the Drumme owner have with area hiring firms and other local corporations that go beyond just the office practices of looking for temporary employee placement. There was no way that I would be able to prove that or compete against a large industrial corporation that is ranked locally as the 11th largest employer in his community and its private owner in his home town area about any of these issues or violations. Could anyone imagine one area HR manager or hiring firm admitting they operated under such a program? Then what would happen to them if that was true? This would be not only another form of retaliation but retaliation beyond reason. Drumme Corporation is a company willingly making it impossible for an individual to ever gain respectable employment within his home town again and willingly take part to destroy his one and only livelihood. All I can hope at best is if they have something to do with blacklisting me, maybe one day Drumme Corporation and its management staff will be seen for just who and what kind of business ethics they practice and live by.

I also file a complaint with OSHA under OSHA 20CFR PART 1977 Discrimination against Employees Exercising Rights under the Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health act of 1970. I filed a coplaint with OSHA under the following statement:

1. I was wrongfully terminated under OSHA 20CFR PART 1977 Discrimination against Employees Exercising Rights under the Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health act of 1970.

Roy directed Bill on August 7, 2008 to install improper hardware which would create a hazardous and unsafe condition. Bill told Roy, “I will do as you have instructed me to do which is an unsafe act. Bill said, “Because you are instructing me to commit this unsafe act I am contacting OSHA to investigate this situation. Roy terminated Bill on August 8, 2008 because Bill mentioned to Roy that he would contact OSHA. For obvious reasons Roy certainly would not commit to stating that as his reason for Bill’s being terminated. This is wrongful termination under OSHA law.

2. I was denied my right to protect myself by my supervisor in a hazardous work environment under OSHA 20CFR PART 1977 Discrimination against Employees Exercising Rights under the Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health act of 1970.

Roy told Bill while Bill was working in a hazardous work environment that Bill does not need the right of protection and it was unnecessary to provide him self the right of protection on more than one occasion. Examples: (1) while working in a hazardous environment, Roy demands, “Don’t use a respirator, you don’t need it.” (2) while working in a hazardous environment again, Roy demands, “Wear only part of the protection you need but don’t worry about what else you need, Go get your respirator if it bothers you that much but that’s all the protective items you will need get back in there”, (3) Unsafe area, Roy demands, “Don’t worry about a ceiling or fixtures falling, just wait until they do “So what, now just fix it.”

3. I was denied my right to work with other employees who were denied proper training prior to working on or around AC DC high voltage equipment and power supply systems under OSHA 20CFR PART 1977 Discrimination against Employees Exercising Rights under the Williams-Steiger Occupational Safety and Health act of 1970.

Not one of Roy’s employees or Roy himself has ever had the minimum 40 hour requirement of OSHA “lock out” and “tag out” training. Before any employee in an industrial maintenance field of industry works on machinery, power supplies or various voltage circuits. It is the company’s responsibility to know and show proof that any employee working on such machinery, circuits or power supply systems must first have the minimum 40 hour requirement of OSHA “lock out” and “tag out” training. No maintenance employee at Drumme Corporation was given or possessed this training. Even knowing this, every employee in maintenance department “did” work on energized machinery, circuits or power supply systems with and without practicing these procedures on a routine basis. Bill had such training at a previous company but has no proof to give Drumme Corporation that he had the training. Drumme Corporation and his supervisor Roy did not care about it.

I also filed a complaint with the IDOL under the Records Review Act. I was given an opportunity to review my personal file at Drumme Corporation. I was not allowed to change anything in my personal records file. All I could do was place another request with the IDOL under the Records Review Act to have improper or incorrect information removed because it is also Drumme Corporation’s willingness to commit defamation against me in a form of retaliation. I stated in my complaint that because the letter Roy stated and issued to me, was according to Roy “The written reason why I was terminated.” Drumme Corporation would require me to use the letter to inform the IDOL unemployment agency as the purpose for my termination. I had an agreement with an attorney based on what I could do at the time. He tried to reach an agreement with Drumme Corporation to correct this and end this entire situation. I had to release him from our contract because I could not afford to pay him for any further services.

Roy’s stated it as a letter of evaluation (or was it a letter of termination because Roy said while handing it to me, “You are fired.”) either way it is “Defamation” because it is untrue to the fact. I had committed no misconduct during employment with Drumme Corporation. It states that I failed to demonstrate any capability for the position and variations of that effect reflected upon my resume. The position I accepted was a Maintenance Lead Mechanic. Roy assigned me to paint factory walls, operate a weed eater. There is no mechanical demonstration or anything Roy ever assigned I that relate to my experience, knowledge or resume, to be evaluated or demonstrated to support Roy’s written statements. This letter was made part of a permanent record contained by Drumme Corporation for future reference.

I began to work for Drumme Corporation on May 12, 2008 until I was wrongfully terminated on August 8, 2008. (On August 7, 2008 I mention to Roy that I was going to contact OSHA because he ordered me to commit an unsafe practice, the very next day I was terminated. I was also terminated because of Age Discrimination, Harassment and for reasons of Retaliation. Terminated because I wanted to contact OSHA and Age Discrimination are both considered reasons of wrongful termination as exceptions to a willful state employment laws.) Roy’s acts of defamation and slander to my character as written falsely by Roy presentation’s about me and placed within my personal file permanently by Drumme Corporation on August 8, 2008. I was unknowingly going to be discriminated and harassed by Roy because, “I was way over the top of anyone as far as the pay scale goes because of my age, experience and knowledge. And that was exactly why Drumme Corporation management was interested in hiring me for the Maintenance Lead Mechanic position.” I suffered harassment and retaliation brought on by others during the entire time I worked at Drumme Corporation.

I was also asking Mark what can be done to correct the problems and improve the situation without any need to go to some outside sources such as OSHA or the EEOC for help and answers. Mark did not give me any real answers because Mark did not take it upon himself to know what was really happening within the maintenance department. Mark did not have any real interest or any concerned that any problem exists. Mark expected his department supervisors to deal with their own problems and decided that he would rather not be involved. Mark simply told me, “Give Roy time to learn and grow in his position as a supervisor. The circumstances and job conditions occurring would change for the better once we get past our October fest celebration. You are doing just fine here and there is nothing for you to be worry or be concerned about.”

After my meeting Mark would later talk with Roy about my concerns. Mark will believe that because of what Roy tells him there are no problems within the maintenance department. But Roy will convince Mark the only problem is me. Mark will only have doubt’s that I am the right person to work for Drumme Corporation. I was never introduced to anyone in upper management, not even Seth Drumme who is the company’s owner. I had no idea what those last three months was going to consist of while learning about a new company and starting a new job position. Working for Drumme Corporation was not like any other situation that I had ever experienced before in my life. Mark violated my confidence in going to him to solve a problem and he did not keep his promise to keep our conversation between only us. Instead Mark lied to me when told me not to worry I was doing just fine it would work itself out. Then Mark allowed Roy to create and write false documentation and lies about me ten days later only to discharge me and commit unwarranted defamation. Defamation – The uttering of slanderous words or writings, the malicious uttering of falsehood respecting another, which tends to destroy or impair his good some character, or occupation.

Roy did not base any of the written statements on any practical mechanical demonstrations that I did or was assigned to do during that period. Roy wrote demonstrating mechanical ability which is a false written statement, because Roy never assigned any form of mechanical assignment that would demonstrate any such ability or inability on my behalf. The only assignment that I was ever given was to work as a painter. On one or two occasions I was given some carpentry work a few electrical projects and plumbing work to do. None of those assigned tasks demonstrated any inability on my part to accomplish them. There are many other things that Roy and other employees did while I was working during that three month period that I have not told anyone about. The situations were endless in numbers to say how many times others messed up my equipment, detour my efforts by leaving me with the mess they made or other issues like not giving me the correct material, tools or parts to accomplish the task or how may situations or methods that were allowed to do some tasks might have been considered very unsafe. When Roy told others to go assist me, it meant messing things up and makes my task difficult and then they would leave. When I was told to assist others, I would go out of my way to help them anyway possible and try to always have a positive attitude about it. I had committed absolutely no misconduct in my work and while working with all of the other employees.