Latino T workers take discrimination grievances to Patrick
Latino MBTA employees, angry over anti-Hispanic comments allegedly made by the transit authority's antidiscrimination chief, took their frustration to Governor Deval Patrick yesterday, seeking a high-level ally to air their grievances.
Craig Dias, founder of Concerned Minority Employees, along with a contingent of Latino MBTA workers, delivered a letter to Patrick's office yesterday asking the governor to appoint a Latino to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's board. The letter also expressed frustration that the percentage of Latino employees at the T has not grown more quickly, and accused MBTA leadership of being insensitive to the concerns. The workers plan to deliver a similar letter to the MBTA board today.
Their frustrations boiled over in recent days after the Globe reported that Jeanne Morrison, assistant general manager of diversity and civil rights at the T, was accused in a discrimination lawsuit of describing Latinos as "sneaky" and suggesting that lying was part of Hispanic culture.
"The Latino community is just so upset about what's going on," Dias said. "No one's given us answers, so we're going to the governor's office, and maybe he can help us."
Dias says the workers have reason to believe Patrick might be sympathetic. Patrick met with minority MBTA employees in 1997 in his role as former president Clinton's assistant attorney general for civil rights. At the time, the Justice Department was investigating claims of discrimination at the T. The investigation concluded that no federal action was warranted.
"We are comfortable with him. He has a true understanding when people cry out for help," Dias said.
Patrick spokesman Kyle Sullivan said yesterday that the governor's office had received the group's letter and that a decision on a new appointment to the MBTA board was forthcoming.
The tensions reached a peak following a discrimination lawsuit filed by former MBTA employee Joseph M. Torres. Torres was fired from his $78,000-a-year job as deputy director for government compliance programs after five months. In his suit, Torres alleges racial and age bias and said Morrison remarked that she "could not find qualified minority applicants" and that "minorities got me fired from my previous job."
The suit further alleges Morrison said "I would like to find a Latino who is not sneaky" and that Hispanics cannot be trusted.
In court papers, the T has denied the allegations and said Torres was fired for poor performance. The employees' letters to the MBTA board and Patrick say it will be "a very sad day here at the MBTA" if the alleged comments are accurate.
Carlos Rodriguez, a 24-year MBTA employee who has filed his own discrimination complaints against the MBTA, said reading the comments in the Torres lawsuit was disturbing. "I was very upset and I felt like we were going backward," said Rodriguez, a yard supervisor at the MBTA's Charlestown fabrication shop.
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said he could not comment specifically on the group's interactions with the diversity office or whether the authority plans to further investigate the allegations of bias. But he disputed the contention by Dias that the groups' concerns had not been heard.
"General manager Dan Grabauskas has met with the Latino Alliance and other groups that represent minority employees at the T on several occasions, and he will continue to meet with them on a regular basis to build on the significant progress that's been made at the authority with respect to the hiring of minority employees and also with the promoting of minority employees," he said.
John C. Drake can be reached at jdrake@globe.com. 