Postal protesters allege harassment, discrimination

A group of protesters marched in front of Postal Service headquarters Monday to voice allegations of sexual harassment, discrimination and whistleblower retaliation.

Two weeks ago, the chairman of a special Postal Service commission described USPS as the safest place to work in America. But members of the National Organization of Women (NOW) and Project One Voice, an organization of current and former postal employees who allege they have been mistreated on the job, insist discrimination and sexual harassment is so pervasive in the Postal Service that many employees fear for their livelihoods, if not for their lives.

"Don't go postal, go public!" the group yelled as they pumped protest signs up and down in the air. "Supervisor pants up, postal rates down!"

One of the protesters, Vicky Guarnieri, 41, was a letter carrier for 13 years before filing a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for discrimination after being turned down for a management training program. Guarnieri, whose life partner, Anne Baumann, worked at the same New York postal station, contends the couple faced harassment and retaliation after she filed her complaint. Both women are currently on leave without pay.

"There's a great fear at the Postal Service," Bauman said. "If you speak out while you're in there, you're going to be subject to intense pressure."

"The programs they have in place are such a facade," Baumann continued. "It's like a movie set-you look behind and it's just a field of suicides and alcoholism and broken families."

Naruporn Vacha, 48, alleged her supervisor cut a bra and panties out of a piece of plastic and asked her to wear them so he could see through them. She filed a complaint with the EEOC, but never got a response. "They put my case in a drawer and that's it," she said.

Vacha said she attempted suicide twice because of the sexual harassment she suffered in the workplace. "I kept it inside until he abused me too much and I couldn't take it any more. You're embarrassed, you feel worthless, you feel filthy."

Though the protest featured female victims, the allegations of abuse aren't gender-specific, protesters said.

"I'm the victim of assault at the Post Office by a supervisor and now that supervisor is promoted and I'm out here on the picket line," said William Tarver, a former Akron, Ohio postal employee who joined Monday's protest.

Project One Voice leaders are asking for a Senate investigation or intervention by President Clinton to prevent what they describe as a national pattern of abuse, retaliation and disregard of the agency's zero-tolerance policy. In July, the group filed a class action suit in San Antonio on behalf of postal workers across the nation.

"As a federal agency, the Postal Service must do everything within its power to stamp out discrimination," Loretta Kane, vice president of NOW, told protesters. "And we must demand and accept nothing short of a model workplace."