When I met with Bruce Sample (Sectional Chairman) on September 25, 2008, he informed me that Kevin Labor had filed a grievance against me for the following reasons:
1. That I would not send him an availability to do ITA matches.
2. That the hunting dog story on the blog was written about him.
These were the facts as conveyed to me by Bruce and at that time I told him I would like to see a copy of the grievance. He replied that he would have to "see if he would let me see it."
Since that time I have written two other requests asking to see the grievance so I would know the reality of the accusations. Both times I have been turned down and in his reply of October 5, 2008, Bruce said, "I also acknowledge your request for a copy of the grievance. At this point, I do not see any benefit in sharing that information."
I just have one word to describe his response and that is RIDICULOUS! Its hard to believe in our day and age that a man in authority is not willing to share a grievance in the workplace. I also served on the Officials Committee Grievance Committe (the one that was re-created in the recent committee meeting) for the past 7 years and at no time did we ever decline to reveal the contents of a grievance.
I will answer Kevin Labor's grievance in a later post, but I am still in absolute amazement that I would be denied access to this document. And I thought the blatant violations of Roberts Rules of Order in the last committee meeting were bad--this takes the cake!
All kinds of words keep coming to my mind but the most appropriate one still seems to be RIDICULOUS... It might make us all think of how they would handle your case if someone filed a frivilous grievance against you.
5 comments:
since when does the person who has a grievance filed not have the right to respond to the actual allegations and not word of mouth allegations?
Should be no reason to deny you a copy of a grievance filed against you.
One word: "RECALL"
or as Festus Haggen (aka Ken Curtis) would say... "Get the hell out of Dodge"
This is exactly what is wrong your your allegeded leadership (or more accurately), lack of leadership in Texas.
Randy, I hope you will put this aside and have an attorney write a letter to Bruce....I am sure Chuck has some lawyer friends who would step up and write it at no charge.
Kevin Labor has NO grievance. As indep. contractors, you have been retained to schedule umpires and you can schedule whomever and whenever you want. You have no legal duty to hire him...
The proud hunting dog, story even if you are the author, is a parable and Kevin has no legal claim there either, although he is certainly entitled to be silly over it. Also, giving your personal "opinion" is NOT defamation.
I think you should send a letter to Rich Kaufman because Bruce Sampley is the one who has violated the Offical Code of Conduct by bad-mouthing you to others. If Bruce should ever decertify you and you have loss of income, then you could really threaten him to settle or spend a whole of money defending.
The national USTA has already issued many statements in other states that it has no jurisdiction over the umpire activities in the different regions and local associations. It is the local sectional association that would take the "hit" so to speak and whatever entity retained Bruce is responsible ultimately for removing him which I assume would be the Texas section.
The National USTA will hang Bruce out to dry, plain and simple.
A Friend
Your Section Chairman should have squelched that grievance before it ever got to a committee.
If the grievance doesn't work, then just go ahead and sue.
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