Postscript: Julian Bond (1940-2015)
August 17, 2015
BY CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT
The opening lyric from that old civil-rights song—“Woke up this morning with my mind stayed on freedom”—may not have been written with Julian Bond in mind, but he personified it. As a member of the Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia Senate, as a leader of the N.A.A.C.P. and the Southern Poverty Law Center, as an activist and a professor and a friend, he answered the call of justice every day. Julian passed away over the weekend, at the age of seventy-five. I will miss him terribly. He and I were children of the civil-rights movement and, in a way, grew up in it together.
I first met Julian in the summer of 1960, at one of the informal gatherings of the burgeoning Atlanta Student Movement. (Well, it might have been a party, which was one of the ways that the demonstrators de-stressed.) I was home in Atlanta, waiting for my desegregation lawsuit against the University of Georgia to work its way through the courts, and Julian was a rising senior at Morehouse College. Even then, his style of writing and thinking was evident in his work. In March of that year, he had helped draft an article called “An Appeal for Human Rights,” which ran as a full-page advertisement in several Atlanta-area newspapers. The document was forthright, elegant, powerful. “Today’s youth will not sit by submissively while being denied all the rights and privileges and joys of life,” it read. “We do not intend to wait placidly for those rights which are legally and morally ours to be meted out to us one at a time.” Segregation, it concluded, was “robbing not only the segregated but the segregator of his human dignity.” (As Julian made clear in 1967, when I interviewed him for Talk of the Town, he didn’t have much patience for embellishment. One of the hardest things about serving in the Georgia legislature, he told me then, “was getting used to the flowery language.”)
Although Julian’s main brief was as a theoretician and tactician, he also spent time on the front lines. He took to heart the teachings of Ella Baker, a leader from the older generation of black activists, who, in 1960, convened the meeting from which the Student Nonviolent Coördinating Committee (SNCC) emerged, with Julian as a co-founder. Baker’s invocation address, called “Bigger Than a Hamburger,” set the tone for the organization: its task was “to rid America of the scourge of racial segregation and discrimination—not only at lunch counters but in every aspect of life.” The group was more militant, more in-your-face than the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the N.A.A.C.P.; Julian and his fellow-activists became known as the movement’s shock troops.
Julian left Morehouse halfway through his senior year to devote himself more fully to SNCC. (He was the son of a college president and came from a long line of educated black folks, and eventually he went back and got his degree.) That year, he became the managing editor of the Atlanta Inquirer, an upstart protest weekly, which was created to do what none of the white-owned papers or the more conservative black-owned ones would—tell the story of the Atlanta Student Movement in all its manifestations. By that point, I and my fellow-plaintiff in the University of Georgia case, Hamilton Holmes, had won, becoming the first African-American students to enroll there. I began working with Julian at the Inquirer on otherwise relaxing weekends home from the still tense UGA campus.
We settled into a predictable rhythm: the student protesters would stage their demonstrations in the morning, get arrested, make bail, and then come tell their stories to Julian, me, and the editor-in-chief, M. Carl Holman, a professor of English at Clark College. We took turns writing up the narratives as news stories, although I sometimes did my own reporting. I spent one Saturday, for instance, at Atlanta’s public hospital, Grady Memorial—where Hamilton later became the chairman of the orthopedic unit—chronicling the chaos in the emergency room. At one point, one of the young doctors showed me the path of a bullet that had gone through a man’s head by sliding an instrument into it. Julian loved that story. He was a patient mentor, just as Ella Baker had been to him, and he had a quiet sense of humor. He wasn’t the most energetic dancer, but at one of our parties, getting into the spirit of things, he wrote a poem:
See that girl
Shake that thing.
We can’t all be
Martin Luther King.
(He remembered it when I mentioned it to him during a visit, almost fifty years later.)
In 1965, Julian was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives. His colleagues, however, refused to seat him, because of his opposition to the Vietnam War, and he didn’t assume office until 1967. He was twenty-eight years old. He continued to campaign around the country, not only for civil rights but also for human rights, not only at home but also in the global community. When Julian came to New York to give a talk to the Southern Conference Educational Fund, one of the oldest interracial civil-rights organizations in the country, I went to cover it for The New Yorker. In his address, Julian discussed the trajectory of the movement and how the passage of the Civil Rights Act, in 1964, had changed its tenor, making people complacent, making them think that the victory had been won. In his soft-spoken but firm and confident way, he went on to suggest that this apparent victory had sapped the movement’s support. “Lack of interest is more killing than lack of money,” he said. “Negroes must not forget race consciousness as long as they are victims of racism.”
Up until the day he left us, Julian never forgot that consciousness. He served as president of the Southern Poverty Law Center when it was founded and, in 1998, was elected chairman of the N.A.A.C.P., a post that he never could have imagined occupying during his years with SNCC. And his consciousness went beyond race—he also became a climate-change activist and an advocate for marriage equality. Julian Bond’s legacy surely lies in the fact that he steadfastly followed the movement’s dictum: keep on keepin’ on.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/postscript-julian-bond-1940-2015-2
Jobs With Justice
Dear Jon,
Google has the answer for almost every question under the sun, except one: why don’t all of the company’s workers make living wages?
Gabriel Cardenas works at a California warehouse for Google Express. And even though Google is a multibillion-dollar corporation, Gabriel and his colleagues employees work in unsafe conditions on short-term contracts and aren’t paid enough to make ends meet. That’s why they’re coming together for a better workplace.
Will you support Gabriel and his co-workers? Send a message to Google and demand that the company doesn’t interfere in their upcoming union election.
Working for Google’s next-day delivery service, Gabriel and his co-workers make sure products ship out within mere hours of when they’re ordered. But they’re employed through a contractor, Adecco, and have no job security to speak of. Worse, they report being pressured to work at unsafe speeds in dangerous conditions with damaged equipment and failing electrical systems that have resulted in fires.
Lazslo Bock, Google’s senior vice president for “people operations,” is on record saying that Google employees and contractors “have a legal right to organize without fear of retaliation.” But without pressure from people like you, we can’t count on Google to live up to those words.
Make sure Google respects everyone’s ability to have a say at work! Send an email to the company today!
Many profitable Silicon Valley companies rely on poorly paid bus drivers, security guards, warehouse workers, janitors and groundskeepers to keep their operations running smoothly. Google is no different. But Gabriel and his co-workers are joining the Teamsters to stand up to this profitable tech giant, and they are not alone. A broad coalition of unions, faith leaders and community groups have come together as Silicon Valley Rising to make sure the tech sector works for everyone, not just well-paid executives. We must speak in one strong clear voice together — join us by standing with Gabriel and his fellow
Google Express workers.
Thanks for all that you do,
Ethan Miller
Jobs With Justice
Many claimants file for disability because they suffer from depression. Others, due to ongoing chronic pain or other symptoms, may became depressed and although depression may not be their main problem, it may become part of their social security disability claim. If you notice symptoms of depression because of your medical, and financial situation, you should seek treatment. SSA may set a consultative examination to evaluate the impact of your mental status on your ability to work.
What to Expect from A Social Security Disability Psychological Exam?
There is a range of testing for mental consultative exams, including a full psychiatric exam and a social security disability psychological exam which is essentially an IQ test. Very often, however, a claimant who has listed depression or anxiety on a claim will be sent to an abbreviated form of exam, known as a social security disability mental status exam.
A social security disability mental status exam will include data regarding your appearance, the way you speak, apparent physical limitation, your ability to sustain eye contact, how well you remember things, your concentration. They will also ask a claimant the date, time and place of the social security disability mental status examination. They will also evaluate your ability to interpreter proverbs and your ability to deal with social situation.
Can You Get Social Security Disability for Depression?
Can your social security disability be granted based on a mental status exam? Likely not. However, that does not mean that a claimant who is sent to a mental status exam cannot be approved. Sometimes, psychological testing is scheduled simply to obtain recent additional medical evidence and in many cases the existing medical evidence is sufficient to warrant an award of benefits.
For this reason, individuals who file for social security disability on the basis of depression, or, really, any mental impairment, should strive to maintain a record of continuous and ongoing treatment. They should also stay compliant with their prescribed medications as a failure to do so may contribute to the basis for a denial.
Contact a Social Security Disability Attorney
If you need help on social security disability psychological exam in Ohio, Call our social security disability attorneys today.
Business First of Columbus – by Cindy Bent Findlay For Business First
Friday, December 8, 2006
The law is clear on many wage-and-hour employment issues, but it seems many employers are still confused. And lawyers are becoming
more aware of the potential for recovery after a few well-publicized, large settlements and awards in class-action wage-and-hour cases.
As a result, class-action and collective wage-and-hour lawsuits are proliferating rapidly in federal and state courts, say attorneys for
employees and employers.
“I don’t think there is any increase in instances where employers are running afoul of these statutes. I’d say lawyers are getting a better
understanding of individuals’ rights,” says Bob DeRose, a partner at Barkan Neff Handelman Meizlish LLP in Columbus.
DeRose, a plaintiffs’ attorney whose firm has multiple wage-and-hour cases pending in Ohio and federal courts, says he sees the suits
spawning from many industries and just about in every form.
Wage-and-hour issues
Misclassification of who should be exempt from overtime pay and how overtime is calculated are typical examples.
“Years ago people thought if they were paid a salary, that fact alone meant they were not entitled to overtime for hours worked over 40,”
says John Marshall, whose Columbus firm, Marshall & Morrow LLC, also represents plaintiffs.
“We’re getting an increasing number of calls from people who are concerned about whether they should be paid overtime because of
increased public consciousness about the subject.”
Marshall has helped plaintiffs file wage-and-hour suits in Ohio and federal courts, including a case where technicians alleged that Digital
Dish, a satellite television company based in the Holmes County town of Millersburg, did not pay overtime or a legal minimum wage for
hours worked during training days. The case is pending in the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
Other pending Ohio cases include complaints against Lowe’s Home Centers claiming the giant hardware retailer improperly calculated
overtime for certain managers in Ohio stores.
Wage-and-hour lawsuits are not new, but more are being filed as collective or class actions.
Some defense attorneys quietly complain that plaintiffs’ attorneys have simply seized on the issue as the newest frontier in which to wield
highly profitable class-action lawsuits as weapons against employers.
“This is a place where the legal community hasn’t paid great attention, but it seems like employers are either negligently or in some cases
intentionally not following the law, and that’s part of the reason there’s more activity – the legal community’s eyes and ears are now open
about it. In my opinion, that’s a good thing,” says Marshall.
Rules have changed
Congress changed rules on what types of employees are exempt from overtime pay eligibility in 2004, creating some fluidity in this area of
labor law. But some say a spike in cases was coming before those changes because of the complicated nature of wage-and-hour law.
“I’ve known people at the wage-and-hour division of the federal government who feel comfortable they can walk into almost any place and
find some technical violation somewhere,” says Douglas Paul, an employment attorney with Buckingham Doolittle & Burroughs LLP’s
Cleveland office.
Marshall said there are cases in which employers who docked the pay of salaried employees for missed attendance suddenly face paying
those same employees overtime, because docking their pay changed the employees’ exempt status.
Overtime cases building
The cases are rippling over more industries in an increasing wave, says Mark Knueve, partner in the Columbus office of Vorys Sater
Seymour and Pease LLP.
In addition to the retail industry, Knueve says he’s observed cases in the financial, health-care and insurance industries in which relatively
high-salaried employees are disputing overtime pay and other wage-and-hour issues.
“It’s on the radar screen of most labor and employment lawyers where five years ago I don’t think we would have been involved in many, if any, overtime cases,” says Marshall, whose firm is handling many cases of this type.
Lawyers say there seems to be no end in sight to employment cases and that Ohio is no exception to the trend.
“The bigger these cases get, the more chance for recovery of substantial fees, the more likely we are to see these,” says Paul.
Cindy Bent Findlay is a freelance writer in Columbus.
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Unpaid Internship Programs
Retaliation and Workers’ Compensation
The Ohio Revised Code states that no employer shall discharge, demote, or take any punitive action against an employee because the employee filed a workers’ compensation claim. R.C. 4123.90. The elements of a retaliatory discharge require an employee to prove that (1) they were injured on the job; (2) the employee filed a claim for workers’ compensation benefits; and (3) that the employee was discharged in contravention of R.C. 4123.90. Once the employee establishes each of these elements, the burden shifts to the employer to articulate a legitimate and nondiscriminatory reason for terminating the employee.
In a recent case, the Court of Appeals of Ohio granted an employer’s Motion for Summary Judgment, because the employee was unable to sufficiently prove that the employer was aware that a workers’ compensation claim had been filed prior to the employee’s termination. In Dragmen v. Swagelok Co., 2014-Ohio-5345 (2014), the employee injured himself while failing to follow the employer’s standard safety procedures. As such, he was placed in a work safety program to stress the importance of following safety procedures, and warned that repeat or additional violations could constitute further discipline, including termination. Id. at ¶8. The employee also filed a workers’ compensation claim, but did not inform his supervisors, and instead filed the claim through the employer’s third party administrator.
Three weeks after being placed in the employee safety program, the employee had a disagreement with a co-worker, which resulted in the employee pulling a chair out from underneath his co-worker. Id. at ¶ 10. The employee was terminated, and he filed a suit alleging that he was fired in retaliation for filing a workers’ compensation claim. The employer filed a Motion for Summary Judgment, which was granted, because there was no evidence that the employee’s supervisors who made the decision to fire him were aware that the employee filed a workers’ compensation claim. Id. at 20.
Thus, “To be liable for retaliating against an employee for taking part in a protected activity, the employer must have knowledge of it.” Meyers v. Goodrich Corp., 8th Dist. Cuyahoga No. 95996, 2011-Ohio-3261 at ¶22. Moreover, even though circumstantial evidence can establish knowledge, it is not enough for an employee to simply assert that their employer’s supervisors generally have knowledge of the charges filed by employees. Id. As such, an employee must prove that their employer knew of their workers’ compensation claim, and fired them as a result of it in order to have a valid retaliation claim.
Source: http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/8/2014/2014-ohio-5345.pdfHow Does SSA Decide if I am Disabled?
Social Security follows a multi-step evaluation process. They will gather medical records from your doctors and obtain hospital records and test results. SSA may choose to have you examined by a doctor or psychologist. To determine if you meet the definition of disability, SSA will ask the following questions:
1) Are you working? If so, your claim will be denied. If not, proceed to next question.
2) Do you have an impairment or combination of impairments which significantly effects work related functions such as standing, walking, lifting, hearing, seeing, concentration, attention to task, attendance, and understanding instructions? SSA will also consider if your impairments have lasted or are expected to last for at least 12 months. If not, your claim will be denied. If yes, proceed to next question.
3) Is your condition so severe as to qualify for disability without further consideration? SSA has a list of impairments which are considered to be totally disabling. If your impairment meets all the elements of the listed impairment, you will be determined to be disabled. If not, proceed to next question.
4) Do your impairments restrict your work capacity so that you cannot return to any of your past relevant work? SSA considers your past relevant work to be all jobs you performed in the past 15 years. If you are found to be capable of returning to one or more of your past jobs, your claim will be denied. If SSA agrees you cannot return to your past work, proceed to next question.
5) Do your impairments restrict your work capacity so that you are unable to adjust to other work which exists in significant numbers in the national economy? SSA does not have to find you work or determine that you could be hired. SSA only determines whether you would be capable of performing and sustaining work if given the opportunity. In determining whether you are capable of other work, SSA will consider your age, education, past work performed, and acquired skills.
Traveling Fixed-Situs Employees?
Is an employee who travels to different job sites on a daily basis a fixed-situs employee subject to the “coming and going rule” for the purposes of determining whether he or she is entitled to workers’ compensation? If so, does the “special hazard exception” apply? Recently, in Palette v. Fowler Electric Co., 2014-Ohio-5376 (2014), the 11th Appellate District determined that they would be subject to the “coming and going rule” and the “special hazard exemption would not apply. Id.
A fixed-situs employee is one who commences his or her substantial employment duties only after arriving at a specific and identifiable workplace designated by his employer. Barber v. Buckey Masonry & Constr. Co., 146 Ohio App.3d 262, 269 (11th Dist. 2001). “As a general rule, an employee with a fixed place of employment, who is injured while traveling to or from his place of employment, is not entitled to participate in the Workers’ Compensation Fund because the requisite casual connection between the injury does not exist.” MTD Prods., Inc. v. Robatin, 61 Ohio St.3d 66 (1991). This is referred to as the “coming and going” rule, and it is used to determine whether an injury suffered in an auto accident occurs in the course of and arising out of the employment relationship. Ruckman v. Cubby Drilling, Inc. 81 Ohio St.3d 117, 120, 689 N.E.2d 917 (1998).
In Palette, the employee worked as an electrician and was injured in an auto accident while driving a company car from his home, to a supply house, before going to the company office for a weekly meeting. Id. at ¶10. Here, the Court determined that because the employee did not commence his substantial employment duties until after arriving at a specific and identifiable work place, he was considered a fixed-situs employee. Palette at ¶30. Moreover, the Court determined that the “special hazard exception” to the “coming and going” rule did not apply, as his travel on the date of the accident did not create a risk that was distinctive or greater in nature than risks to the greater public. Ruckman, 81 Ohio St.3d 117 at paragraph two of the syllabus.
For more information on Palette and other cases, please see: http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/11/2014/2014-ohio-5376.pdf.
The Social Security Disability Claims Process
Paul F. Woodrow
Filing for Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits involves a sometimes lengthy administrative process. A claim is filed by contacting the Social Security Administration (SSA), which may be done online, over the telephone, or in person at your local SSA office. The SSA representative will ask you for information about when you became disabled, your work history and, most importantly, the medical and /or mental health conditions that prevent you from working. It is very important that this information be complete and accurate, so that SSA can thoroughly evaluate your claim. Once they have obtained this information, SSA will transfer your claim to the Bureau of Disability Determination, an agency of the state of Ohio, which will actually process your claim, using SSA’s rules and regulations for evaluating disability.
The state agency will contact your doctors and other medical providers, and gather all of the medical evidence pertaining to your disabling conditions. They may send you to a doctor for an examination, at their expense, in order to get a better picture of your medical condition. They may also contact you or your representative for additional information. Once the state agency has gathered all the evidence, your claim will be reviewed by a state agency doctor, who will determine the severity of your medical conditions, how they may limit your ability to function in a work setting, and whether they meet the SSA definition of disability. Your claim will then be returned to SSA, who will send you a written decision. At the initial level, this process usually takes about six months. If SSA finds you disabled, they will then process payment of your benefits.
If your claim is denied, you have the right to appeal. This is called requesting a reconsideration. At this level, SSA and the state agency will obtain updated medical evidence, review your claim again, and make a new decision. This process usually takes three to six months. If SSA finds you disabled at this level, they will notify you and process your benefits.
If your claim is denied at the reconsideration level, you have the right to request a hearing. At the hearing level, you will have the opportunity to appear and testify at an informal hearing before an Administrative Law Judge. Your representative will make sure all the evidence is up to date, and will present your claim to the Judge, making arguments on your behalf. The Judge does not have to follow the earlier decisions which denied your claim, but will make a brand new decision after considering the medical evidence, your testimony, and the arguments of your representative. Because of the large backlog of claims at the hearing level, it usually takes about nine to twelve months for a hearing to be scheduled.
When filing for disability benefits, it is very important to be in treatment for all of your medical and/or mental health conditions, so that they can be documented for your claim. It is also vital that SSA be kept informed of any changes in your medical condition or treatment, so that they will have complete and accurate information when evaluating your claim. Your attorney representative can help you make sure SSA has all the information they need at all stages of the claim, and can help present your claim in a way that will maximize your chance of success.
Cost of Living Adjustment
The Social Security Administration recently announced that monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits will increase 1.7 percent in 2015. The 1.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin for Social Security Disability and Retirement beneficiaries in January 2015. Increased payments for SSI beneficiaries will begin on December 31, 2014. SSI beneficiaries will now receive $733.00 a month, increased from $721.00. The Social Security Act states that the annual COLA is linked to the increase in the Consumer Price Index as determined by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
If you are currently receiving Social Security benefits, you may soon receive award notices in the mail that will show your monthly payment. If you have any questions regarding your new payment, please don’t hesitate to contact our office. If you are not yet receiving benefits, but are interested in what your monthly benefit amount may be, you can create an account at www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount.
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