(Black) Employees Find Noose Hanging at Work (CNN report)

[Divernan]

(Story highlights: Noose was hanging in area accessible only to white managers, but visible to all black employees; two white supervisor/managers stated purpose was to hang black employees; noose stayed up for a whole week after employees complained about it; company denies racism but continues to pay both whites - one suspended with pay; other still working.)

You can email 180 Connect, with cc's to Cablevision & Time Warner if you are as disgusted and offended by this incident as I am. If even only 50 DUers take time to email, it will have an effect.
We are captive customers of cable TV - it's not simply a service we can choose to do without. Come to think of it, this should probably be brought to the attention of the FCC also.
Email addys:
[e-mail]

Patricia Armstrong
Senior Vice President, Investor Relations
Cablevision Systems Corp.
[e-mail]

Time Warner (investor relations)
[e-mail]


www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/05/chernoff.noose/index.html

By Allan Chernoff
CNN

NEW YORK (CNN) -- James Jackson, a 26-year-old black employee of 180 Connect, was preparing for another day of installing cable, telephone and Internet service to residential customers of Cablevision in Nassau County, New York on December 7. When he walked to the fenced-off area to pick up equipment for the day's jobs he looked up and was shocked to see a vicious, racist symbol in his workplace. A noose was hanging in the fenced-off equipment area, visible to the dozens of installers, the majority of whom are black, but accessible only to his boss and an equipment manager, both of whom are white.

Jackson, a former messenger who had worked at 180 Connect for a year and a half, immediately confronted the equipment manager, Dave Willie."I asked Dave," Jackson told CNN, " 'What is that hanging up there?' and he said, 'That is a noose' and I said, 'I know it's a noose, but why is it up there?' And he walked away." Jackson and his co-workers say they were distraught. "I just wanted to leave. I wanted to get out of there," 180 Connect employee Ralph Satterwhite told CNN. "I was disgusted."

The installers say they never complained to Human Resources. Instead, they consulted with a labor attorney, documented the incident, and decided to file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Installer Shomari Houston, according to the complaint, says he asked his white boss, Gary Murdock, why a hangman's noose was in his workplace. He says the response was: To hang two black employees. "He said, 'Yo, I like that, it's cool, I am gonna hang Russell up there. Think we can get James up there?' " Houston recalls Murdock saying. "I looked at him like, 'You serious.' "

180 Connect has retained former National Labor Relations Law Judge Edwin Bennett to conduct an investigation. The installers, however, are refusing to appear before the judge without their attorney, which the company is not permitting, arguing it is not a legal proceeding. Although the installers don't work directly for Cablevision, they also named the cable operator in their suit, saying company employees saw the noose and took no action.

(End of quotes from article)

See the link for more details, including the transcript of the taped conversation in which the white supervisor says the purpose of the rope is to hand "anybody(employees) who goes past that door that I don't want them in there."

180 Connect at that particular location was installing connections for Cablevision. 180 Connect has more than 4,000 employees around the country, in almost all the states. Among the cable television companies it provides installation services for is Time Warner Cable, a division of CNN's parent company, Time Warner. Good for CNN for reporting the story.

[KingFlorez]

1. Wonder what the supervisor's Freeper name is?

[QC]

2. Damn those southern racists!!!

Damn them to hell!!!

[wakeme2008]

3. A this is the fourth or more thread on this and B IMHO this has nothing

to do with race but with the hanging of Saddam. But the owners are still freepers.

[Divernan]

8. No, this occurred on December 7th, before the hanging.

nt

[Bitwit1234]

4. Forget about the FCC

My brother emailed them about the righ wing nut that urged his radio listeners to find the addresses of their democratic memebers of congress and if they passed a law they did not like to go out and shoot them. this is their reply....IT WAS FREE SPEECH AND THEY COULD NOT CONTROL THAT.

So they can fine CBS because Janet Jackson showed a boob. They can fine a radio station because Howard Stern used foul language but...threating to kill someone is FREE speech. I don't understand that one. My brother forwarded me a copy of the email. I read it for myself.

[Divernan]

5. Here's my letter

I was very disgusted to read the CNN article
www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/05/chernorr.noose/index.html

about your Nassau County, NY operation where two of your white manager/supervisors hung a noose in their restricted work space, visible to their many black employoees. You have photographic and taped evidence that the noose was hung and the white supervisor stated his intention to hang black employees (he named two black employees). You put one of these racists on paid leave, and the other continues to work for you. I must conclude that whomever in your corporate heirarchy made the decision to keep paying these two guys is as much a racist as they are. Given the evidence already available to you, at the very minimum they should both have been suspended, rather than subject your black employees to have to continue working under such blatant racists.

I realize that with Bush in the White House, the EEOC has not been very agressive. But now that the Democratic party is in control of the House AND Senate, be aware that there are going to be many, many oversight panels investigating whether adminstrative agencies are fulfilling their mandates. So don't be so blase about supporting racist acts by your managers. After sending this email, my next act is to post the CNN article on a national political blog with 99,700 registered members. We may be captive customers of the cable industry, but we don't have to enable your racist employment practises with our silence.

My demographic particulars are: white, female, Democratic, lawyer.

(Signed)

[Kagemusha]

6. Taped conversation does not sound good for the managers.

...Good.

[Burma Jones]

7. Goddamn Southern....

New Yorkers........

[IWantAChange]

9. Hopefully the Nov elections will start to reverse the culture of hate

and ignorance that has been growing ever since the Republican Revolution in '94.

[liberal renegade]

10. The lynch mob mentality is

alive and well in the Bad Ole USA.

[The Cleaner]

11. In 2007 it's shocking to see this crap is still going on.

Utterly shocking, ignorant, bizarre.

[madrchsod]

12. bad move....rr donnelley

was sued over a "noose" hanging in one of their printing plants several years ago.the case lasted several years but they lost. although the donnelly situation was far more racist than this there still is a big precedence in this case-hang man`s noose and two black men....

[THUNDER HANDS]

13. my sister's bf works for cablevision

I don't know if its in this office, but I'll see if i can find out more about this story from him.