THE C4C FEDERAL EXCHANGE
The Coalition For Change, Inc. (C4C)
HIGHLIGHTS
Women Whistleblowers Stand For Truth
The EEOC: Adjudicating Federal
Sector Hearings and Appeals
Agriculture Employee Wins Bias Case
PBS NewsHour: Rape and Reprisal
in the U.S. Forest Service
TRUTH BE TOLD:
Whistleblowers, Journalists & Democracy
Default Judgment:
EEOC Orders Over 17 Years of Backpay
No FEAR Spotlight –Veterans Affairs
DO YOU KNOW . . .
About the EEOC’s Complaint
Hearing and Appeal Delays?
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) holds hearings
on discrimination complaints filed
by federal employees and
applicants. The enforcement
agency also adjudicates appeals
of decisions on such claims.
According to latest statistics
published on the EEOC’s website,
the “average” processing time for hearing
closures reached 419 days in FY 2014. With
regard to appeals, the EEOC reported in its
Fiscal Year 2017 Performance and
Accountability Report it had a significant
backlog of “appeal” cases that were more than
500 days old.
C4C Federal Exchange Newsletter – SPRING 2018
Volume 5, Number 1 (Spring 2018)
ISSN 2375-7086 (Online)
Women Whistleblowers
Stand For Truth
In celebration of women’s history month, the
Essential Women’s Movement for African
American Women held its first “Annual Black
Women’s Shero Summit.” The Summit was
held on March 8, 2018. It featured five
women who selflessly risked it all to do what
was right. Recognized during the event and
pictured above from left to right were Cathy
Harris, Arthuretta Holmes-Martin, Marsha
Coleman-Adebayo, Tanya Ward Jordan and
Marcel Reid. The brave women spoke about
abuses within the U.S. Customs Service,
Internal Revenue Service, Environmental
Protection Agency, Department of Commerce,
and the Association of Community
Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).
They also shared personal accounts of how
workplace reprisal harmed their physical,
financial and mental well-being.
Cathy Harris, a former Senior Customs
Inspector, disclosed to the media the U.S.
Customs Service’s practice of racially
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targeting airline passengers. In her
book, Flying While Black: A Whistleblower’s
Story, Ms. Harris describes how federal
officials stopped, frisked, detained, racially
humiliated, body-cavity-searched, and forced
African-Americans to take laxatives and to
submit to bowel-monitoring.
community-based organization that advocated
for low and moderate-income families.
To learn more about the disclosures made by
these courageous women, visit link of the
“First Annual Virtual Black Women’s Shero
Summit” at https://fccdl.in/QiF9Z60VcA

Arthuretta Holmes-Martin blew the The EEOC: Adjudicating Federal

whistle on federal contract corruption at the Sector Hearings and Appeals
Internal Revenue Service. After a twenty-five
year career in the federal government, she
In fiscal year 2017, the EEOC received 8,012
launched a small business. The business,
requests for hearings on federal sector
Words and Melodies, provides audiences the
complaints and secured over $72.7 million in
experience of learning and healing through
relief for federal employees and applicants
the powerful tool of storytelling. Ms. Holmes-
who requested hearings. In addition, the
Martin serves as the President of the National
EEOC received 3,831 federal sector appeals.
Capitol Area Black Storytellers Association.
In its Fiscal Year 2017, Performance
and Accountability Report the EEOC
Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, a former
reported to Congress that it focused on
Senior Policy Analyst for the Environmental
“resolving the oldest appeals. and those that
Protection Agency (EPA), blew the whistle on
vindicate employees’ legal rights and/or
the agency’s failure to act after she reported
preserve their access to the EEO complaint
how a United States mining company harmed
the health of South Africa people while it process.” Note, the EEOC issued only 68
exhumed the African country’s findings of discrimination in fiscal year 2017.
vanadium. Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, is
author of No Fear: A Whistleblower's
Triumph Over Corruption and Retaliation at Agriculture Employee Wins
the EPA. Bias Case
Tanya Ward Jordan, President and
Founder of The Coalition For Change, Inc.
(C4C), blew the whistle on widespread racism
within the Commerce Department and on the
cabinet level department’s subjective pay for
performance system that disproportionately
harmed the economic well-being of African
American employees. Ms. Ward Jordan is the
author of the soon-to-be released self-help
book entitled 17 Steps: A Federal Employee's
Guide For Tackling Workplace
Discrimination.
It took Denise A. Banks almost two decades,
Marcel Reid is a former Chair with the however, the African-American female
Association of Community Organizations for recently celebrated a victory in her
Reform Now (Acorn). While in this capacity, employment complaint against the U.S.
she blew the whistle on theft, Department of Agriculture (USDA). Ms.
mismanagement and corruption within the Banks case began in January 2000 when she

C4C Federal Exchange Newsletter – SPRING 2018 Page 2

was demoted from her Senior Executive
Service (SES) position as deputy director of
employment in USDA’s Office of Civil Rights
to grade GS-15. The department claimed that
her performance was unsatisfactory during
her probationary period. Banks, however,
charged racial and sexual discrimination. She
obtained a jury trial. Although the jury did
not accept the racial discrimination charge, it
did find that USDA removed Banks from her
SES position because of intentional
discrimination based on her sex. Read more
about: Denise A. Banks v Sonny Purdue,
Secretary of Agriculture [Case No. 07-cv-
01807 ] at
https://www.courtlistener.com/pdf/2018/02
/22/banks_v._conner.pdf
DEFAULT JUDGEMENT:
EEOC ORDERS Over 17 YEARS
OF BACK PAY
Amina W., V. Rick Perry
In a 1998 case involving a non-selection, an
employee filed an EEO charge claiming she
was being harassed because of her race,
national origin, color, disability, age, and
prior EEO activity. After the agency drag the
case out for years, in November 2015, the
EEOC imposed a default judgment on the
agency for failing to cooperate in the appeal.
Amina W., V. Rick Perry, Secretary,
Department of Energy, Appeal No.
0120113823. To view case visit link at
https://www.eeoc.gov/decisions/0120113823
.txt
PBS NewsHour: Rape and Reprisal
in the U.S. Forest Service
In an exclusive PBS NewsHour investigation,
thirty-four women in thirteen states tell their
stories of rape, harassment, gender
discrimination and the retaliation that
followed after they reported abuse in the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service.
See coverage on YouTube link entitled: Rape,
Harassment and Retaliation in the U.S. Forest
Service at https://tinyurl.com/y786hpbd
C4C Federal Exchange Newsletter – SPRING 2018
TRUTH BE TOLD: Whistleblowers,
Journalists & Democracy
Panelists speak before audience at UDC David A.
Clarke School of Law on March 14, 2018.
Sunshine Week was established in March
2005. The American Society of News Editors
spearheaded the national initiative to educate
the public about the importance of open
government and the dangers of excessive and
unnecessary secrecy. In celebration of
Sunshine Week, the Society of Professional
Journalists (SPJ) teamed up with the
Government Accountability Project (GAP) to
tell the stories of Brandon Coleman (Veteran
Affairs’ whistleblower,) and Larry Criscione
(Nuclear Regulatory Commission
whistleblower).
In addition, two journalists, Joe Davidson of
the Washington Post and Zack Kopplin,
freelance investigative reporter, were among
the panelists. The journalists discussed how
they have worked with brave sources to report
the truth and how they verify their
information while minimizing their risk of
retaliation. The event was moderated by Dana
Gold, GAP’s Director of Education and
Danielle McLean, SPJ’s Freedom of
Information Committee Chair.
To learn more about GAP’s TRUTH BE TOLD
project visit https://www.whistleblower.org
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IN THE NEWS
 “Let's be honest -- when your boss gets
mad at you and puts you on a
Performance Improvement Plan, the last
thing on his or her mind is improving
your performance”--Liz Ryan “Forbes
Magazine. Read more
https://www.forbes.com
 In FY 2017, the EEOC completed the final
program evaluation report of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) EEO program. The EEOC
report addressed compliance issues with
HHS’ complaint process and reasonable
accommodation program for individuals
with disabilities. HHS provided its first
Corrective Action Plan in the fourth
quarter of FY 2017.
 Shine the Light Campaign on Federal
Racism. Will you help with The Coalition
For Change, Inc.'s "Media Campaign" to
shine light on abuses inside the federal
government? C4C to do Press Release to
expose the shortcoming of the EEOC..
Click HERE.
GOT NEWS?
Contact us at
C4C@coalition4change.org
Contributing Editor, Tanya Ward Jordan
C4C Federal Exchange Newsletter – SPRING 2018
No FEAR Spotlight:
Department of Veterans Affairs
The Notification and Federal Employee
Anti-discrimination and Retaliation
(No FEAR) Act of 2002 requires agencies to
post statistical data about it equal
employment opportunity complaints. The
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is the
second largest federal agency. According to
the Office of Personnel Management, in
September 2017, the VA’s workforce totaled
377,109. VA manages and administers aid to
veterans and their family members.
According to its’ No FEAR data, the VA
reported the following:
Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 Totals
Number of Complaints Filed: 2571
Complaints Dismissed by Agency: 424
Number of Discrimination Findings: 36
Of the 2, 571 complaints filed in FY 2017,
race-based complaints totaled  982.
The C4C Federal Exchange
Newsletter is a quarterly
publication of The Coalition
For Change, Inc. (C4C). The
internet publication, which shares
information on race discrimination and
retaliation in the federal sector, obtained its
ISSN 2375-7086 from the U.S. Library of
Congress in October 2014.
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