BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Corrosive discrimination continues 10 years after a federal judge found pervasive racism at Avondale's Veterans Affairs Medical Center, protesters and a lawyer claimed on Tuesday.
"I have been retained by 44 employees of the VA," attorney Lisa May Evans said. Her clients, she claimed, faced racial discrimination in hiring and promotion and retaliation when they filed Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaints.
Suzanne Tate, spokeswoman for the center, said the center does a good job of employing minorities and many African-Americans are in upper-management positions.
Employees use grievance and informal EEO procedures when they believe they are victims of discrimination, she said. "We do not retaliate against employees who exercise these rights. When retaliation is alleged, we quickly investigate the charges."
Christopher W. Perkins Jr. won reinstatement to his job in 1988 after Magistrate J. Vincent Aug Jr. and U.S. District Judge Herman J. Weber said he was a victim of discrimination and reprisals.
Ms. Evans said Mr. Perkins still works at the center and is pursuing a new discrimination complaint.
At the main entrance on Vine Street, three men carrying handwritten signs attacking the center's employment practices included two ministers of an Over-the-Rhine mosque, Masjid Al-Malik. They said black employees and job applicants came to them with discrimination complaints.
Minister Abdur Rashid Ali said he had tried to talk to center officials but no one returned his calls.
Ms. Evans complained that some personnel managers who have influence on hiring and promotions oversee subordinates handling discrimination complaints.
Ms. Tate confirmed that she has been responsible for the internal EEO program as executive assistant to the director of the center, but a new EEO manager has been promoted.
Ms. Evans and the two Muslim protesters said blacks are clustered in maintenance and food service, and attempts to move up are frustrated. But Ms. Tate said many people stay in food and maintenance departments because salaries are higher than in some white-collar jobs.
"These people just want to come to work and do their jobs," Ms. Evans said, but they also want "fairness."
