Exclusive: Carla Vinson, who worked for USPS for 26 years, says she endured ‘intimidation and bullying’ after reporting two white coworkers who allegedly used racial slurs
Michael SainatoWed 16 Oct 2024 06.00 EDTLast modified on Wed 16 Oct 2024 06.01 EDTShareThe United States Postal Service (USPS) is facing accusations of retaliation, harassment and intimidation from a longtime employee who alleges she experienced racism on the job.
Carla Thomas Vinson has worked for USPS in Gainesville, Florida, for about 26 years. Everything changed last February.
Vinson, who is African American, overheard two white colleagues in conversation. Both used racial slurs, according to Vinson and a legal filing submitted by USPS – which one of them would later repeat to her, directly, when recounting the exchange.
In an interview with the Guardian, Vinson claimed she had been subjected to “stalking, intimidation, bullying” after she complained about the incident. “I feel as though a company that I have invested so many years in has failed me,” she said.
USPS declined to comment. “It is USPS policy not to comment on pending litigation or internal personnel matters,” a spokesperson said.
The postal service has endured a string of crises in recent years, as it grappled with financial issues and declines in mail volume. Louis DeJoy, a former trucking logistics CEO and prolific fundraiser for Donald Trump with no prior postal service experience, became postmaster general in 2020; his plans for reform have faced criticism amid claims of slower deliveries.
Inside the postal service, meanwhile, employees have raised the alarm over alleged workplace misconduct.
People of color represent more than half its workforce, which it wants to “represent the diverse communities we serve”, according to its website. But for years, it has faced allegations of racism in its ranks.
View image in fullscreenThe postal service has endured a string of crises in recent years, as it grappled with financial issues and declines in mail volume. Photograph: Malcolm Jackson/The Guardian
Vinson, a supervisor at USPS at the time, did not normally work on Sundays. An exception was 19 February 2023. The office was mostly empty.
That morning, while making a pot of coffee, she overheard a postal employee speaking to one of her fellow supervisors. William Roy complained to Alvin Tate that he felt he was being treated like a “fucking N-word”, according to Vinson. She says Tate reassured him he was not, and that he was “one of us”.
“I was kind of shocked, because Roy is an older white male,” Vinson said in an interview. While she said Roy did not talk to a lot of people at the post office, she claimed that she was someone he spoke to “every day”.
Roy left the office, and Tate came to her desk. At this point, according to Vinson, Tate sat down and repeated the conversation, including the racial slur that both he and Roy had used.
Vinson was “just stunned”, she told the Guardian. “I didn’t say a word.”
She remembers reaching for a yellow sticky tab, and making a mark each time Tate used the N-word. He did so 17 times, according to Vinson. In an affidavit, Tate claimed he only used the N-word once, when reciting the initial conversation back to Vinson.
Tate walked away. “I got up. I was so shocked,” said Vinson. “I went to the bathroom and I cried. I literally cried. Because I couldn’t believe that this man, that I’ve been working with for a few years, felt the need to sit down and say these things, and just kept on saying it over and over again.”
Around 45 minutes later, she decided to confront Tate. “I said: ‘Alvin, you don’t think the conversation that you and Roy had was hurtful to me’,” Vinson recalled. “And I said: ‘And then you came, you never addressed Roy by saying that as a supervisor, but then you came and sat at my desk, and you said it over and over again like it’s in your everyday vocabulary. You continue to say it.’”
Vinson says she started to cry. “I didn’t even realize what I was saying,” Tate said, according to her and the USPS motion for summary judgment. He allegedly added: “Can you tell me what it means?”
Tate later claimed in an affidavit he asked Vinson what the word meant to her so she can understand why it upset her.
She went home early.
Following the conversations with Roy and Tate, Vinson texted her manager, Matt Sapp, to explain what had happened. He immediately called.
Vinson’s relationship with Sapp had already been strained by an incident that tested her confidence in the postal service’s handling of workplace conduct.
Nine years previously, in 2014, Sapp allegedly pulled his pants down at work, exposing himself to her. In a 2014 written statement on the incident, Vinson said she was “extremely shocked and horrified” and that she tried blocking it out of her mind.
Following an internal investigation, Sapp was not reprimanded and continued to work in a management role at the plant, according to Vinson.
“I immediately heard about it,” said Linda O’Brien, who was a clerk in the maintenance department, and nearby at the time of the incident. “Carla immediately came to me and said: ‘Matt just whipped out his penis,’” recalled O’Brien, who is now retired.
She also said she received sexually graphic text messages from Sapp that were sent while she was still a USPS employee. The Guardian has reviewed these messages.
“Carla, she’s a good person,” said O’Brien, “and nobody deserves to be treated like she’s being treated.”
Sapp has since left the Gainesville, Florida, plant. He took up a management position at a larger postal service plant in Jacksonville, Florida.
When Sapp called Vinson, and listened to her account, she says that he assured her he would resolve the issue, told her not to talk to anyone about it, and promised he would not relay their discussion to Tate.
But when Vinson returned to work the next day, she says she realized that many of her co-workers were already aware of the incident. They were “coming into my office, which is rare”, she said, claiming they asked her if she was OK, and explained: “Matt told us what happened.”
Sapp did not show up at the plant on Monday, according to Vinson, and took a sick day on Tuesday. Tate, meanwhile, showed up for an early morning shift – despite his previous schedule beginning in the afternoon.
“Everybody’s talking about it, but there’s no resolution,” recalled Vinson. “All they see is that I’m at work, Alvin’s at work, and Matt is ghosting us.”
Sapp returned on Wednesday. Vinson says she confronted him about telling other employees about the incident, but he denied doing so. She did not believe him: aside from Vinson, her husband, Tate and Roy, no one other than Sapp had known what happened.
With no resolution, Vinson started working evening shifts, on lower pay, to get away from Tate. “Maybe two, three weeks” later, however, she says Tate moved to this shift, too – in a direct supervisory role.
“It was torture,” she recalled in the interview. “It had gotten to a point where I started getting disciplined for stuff. All the years I’ve been there, never been disciplined. And it’s still ongoing.”
View image in fullscreenClara Thomas Vinson having a sip of coffee before heading to work. Photograph: Malcolm Jackson/The Guardian
William Roy was fired in March 2023, according to a statement of material facts compiled by a USPS attorney, while Tate received a written warning. Vinson contacted the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) last April, and filed a formal complaint last July, alleging that she was repeatedly subjected to a racial slur.
A motion for summary judgment filed by a USPS attorney claimed that Tate only used the N-word once, while relaying his conversation with Roy to Vinson, and that “prompt” investigation and “remedial action” by USPS managers “precludes liability”. Tate was initially moved to a different shift to avoid interaction with Vinson, according to the motion, but was moved back during holiday peak season to train an employee.
The case is currently awaiting a decision by administrative law judge Kimberly Greenleaf in Florida on the motion for summary judgment filed on behalf of the USPS and Louis DeJoy, the postmaster general, by a USPS attorney.
In an investigative report filed as part of the EEOC process, two other USPS workers alleged that they had heard Tate use the N-word in the workplace on other occasions. “He has been heard on many occasions using the N-word not only in front of me, but many within the plant,” said one.
Tate, in an affidavit, did not address those statements. He only admitted to using the N-word once, when reciting what Roy had said to Vinson.
While the Guardian directly contacted Tate and Sapp for comment, a USPS spokesperson declined to comment on their behalf. Roy could not be reached for comment.
The situation at the plant has not improved over the past year, according to Vinson.
“It’s been stalking, intimidation, bullying, every single day,” she said. “I have missed a lot of work, because I literally have been sick with going there, so I’ve exhausted all of my leave, my sick leave, my vacation time, my FMLA [medical leave].
“And when you don’t go to work and you have no leave, you’re on leave without pay status. So I wasn’t getting paid for a long period of time, so I’ve had to use my credit cards to pay for this, pay for that. And then they’re blown up, because that’s what I’ve had to do.”
She has filed additional complaints, which have been consolidated with her original EEOC lawsuit against the USPS and DeJoy, over examples of alleged retaliation she has experienced since the initial incident last year. The initial complaints were dismissed due to not being timely filed, though the appeal is currently being reviewed.
Her claims range from having one of the two men involved in the February 2023 incident moved to directly supervise and work alongside her, to being forced to leave work by another supervisor, Noelia Lamont – an aunt of the current plant manager, Javier Pazo – and then written up for being awol after she was escorted out.
Seven other USPS employees provided Vinson with written statements, which the Guardian reviewed, corroborating allegations of incidents Vinson faced with Lamont, including intimidation, aggression, an attempt to record Vinson during an investigative interview without consent, where she says she was questioned about her EEOC case, and stalking and harassment. Two Black female employees also accused Lamont of harassment due to their race in statements provided in support of Vinson’s case.
View image in fullscreenA USPS facility in Gainesville, Florida. Photograph: Malcolm Jackson/The GuardianA USPS employee, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, said they had witnessed Lamont harassing Vinson. This included following Vinson out to her car at work.
“Working with her is hostile. I don’t even try to be in the same vicinity with her,” they said of Lamont. “With Carla, I have seen her harassing her. She’ll follow her around. It had got to the point where she had got two other supervisors involved to follow her around, to follow her to the car, to stand in the parking lot, waiting on her, just all types of stuff.”
After one incident, Vinson called the local police. Lamont had been following her around the workplace and into the bathroom, she said. The Gainesville police department confirmed that an officer responded to the call, but did not write an incident report. Vinson said they concluded that it was a human resources issue.
While the Guardian directly contacted Lamont for comment, a USPS spokesperson declined to comment on her behalf. In a letter from USPS on 21 June 2024 from an alternative dispute resolution specialist, Lamont disputed claims of recording Vinson without her consent or knowledge and disputed claims of raising her voice to her. The letter noted there was no resolution to her counseling request, informing Vinson she could either file a formal complaint or take no further action.
Workers at the postal service’s Gainesville plant were recently mandated to watch a safety video concerning the No Fear (Notification and Federal Employee Anti-discrimination and Retaliation) Act of 2002, according to Vinson. For her, it felt like a “slap in the face”.
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