Wanda Little Termination Rescinded!

Wanda Little has been working as a Nursing Assistant with Riverside County since 1984, primarily at the Corona Family Care Clinic. In May of 1999 she was placed on Paid Administrative leave and terminated on September 20, 2000.

The union took her case to Arbitration and Linda Jefferson and Kathie Delgado represented her. The Arbitrator stated that although Wanda did engage in most of the allegations and that the department did have cause to discipline her they did not have cause to terminate her.
Her prior suspension was reduced because the prior Arbitrator found that some of the allegations had not been proven and others were de minimus. “It appears that after

(From left) Linda Jefferson, Wanda Little and Kathie Delgado

the employee returned to work in May 1999, the department started to catalogue her misconduct and endeavored to take a shortcut by discharging the appellant’s for a series of specific acts of misconduct for which discharge was not an appropriate course of dealing with appellant’s less than satisfactory work performance.”

The arbitrator also pointed out that Wanda did not receive written notice that her behavior needed to change nor did they put her on a performance improvement plan.

The Arbitrator ordered Wanda to be reinstated and that her termination be reduced to a thirty-day suspension and that she be made whole for all lost back wages.

 Pictured above are some of the LIUNA Local 777 members
and staff who attended the Annual Legislative
Advocacy Daysthis year in Sacramento.

Legislative Advocacy Days Strike Gold In Sacramento!

On May 5 – 7 members from several public agencies represented by Local 777 attended the Annual Legislative Advocacy days on May 5-7.

Many gave their own time to lobby (as they did last year on AB 616) on issues directly affecting public employees.

Those attending included: Riverside County: Maria Ochoa-Flynn and Ryan Douglas; Newport Beach: Teresa Craig and Eileen Harrington; Los Angeles: Dave Bunjac, Lorna Ward, Janice Galvan, Gordon Carpenter, Luciano Meza, Kurt Reschke, Kelly Byrne and Bruce Wells; Downey: Karen Huynh and Maria Rodriguez; and from Local 777 staff: Linda Gonse, Steve Belhumeur, Paul Bechely, Linda Jefferson, Victor Gordo, and Kathie Delgado.



Unhappy Anniversary

 March 20 was the first anniversary of President George W. Bush’s signature on the congressional repeal of the OSHA ergonomics standard. In the year since, nearly 1.8 million U.S. workers suffered such workplace ergonomic injuries as carpal tunnel syndrome. March 20 also marked a year of broken promises by the Bush administration to develop a workplace ergonomics policy. “Despite repeated promises by leaders of your administration, including Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, nothing has been done on behalf of the millions of American workers whose safeguard was taken away from them by an act of Congress and your signature,” four members of Congress said in a letter to Bush. Chao had been expected to outline the administration’s ergonomic strategy at a March 14 Senate hearing, but she requested that it be postponed.


Free Notary and Copy Service Offered

The LIUNA Local 777 offices now offers free notary public services as well as providing up to 20 free copies—by appointment only.

Please call Teresa Moreno at our Riverside office, (909) 682-4590; or Diana Diaz at our Los Angeles office, (213) 380-6678, for further information or to schedule an appointment.

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