County Trying to Fire Worker for Leaving During Bomb Threat

Clerical worker Brenda Hicks didn’t worry at first when she saw more sheriffs’ deputies than usual roaming the Burlington County, N.J., Courthouse last Nov. 3. Then a supervisor told her why they were there.

They’re looking for a bomb,” the woman told Hicks, a member of CWA Local 1034 in southern New Jersey.

“They’re doing what?” Hicks remembers saying, her heart pounding. “Why are we still here?”

The supervisor said no one was allowed to leave, but suggested Hicks call the union and get its position. A union officer told her she had the right by contract to a safe and healthy workplace, meaning she could leave if she wasn’t comfortable staying.

She did. And the county wants to fire her for it.
Outraged union leaders are vigorously backing Hicks in an ongoing disciplinary hearing, and have filed two grievances related to the incident.

“The county has decided that the issue isn’t their callous disregard of the safety of the workers and the public entering the building,” said John Lazzarotti, president of the Burlington County branch of 1034. “The issue is that they’re the boss and the union isn’t going to tell the workers when they can leave the building.”

Hicks was the only worker who left. Others called the union and got similar advice but have testified that they didn’t go because they feared retribution. Hicks said she learned that another boss came into the records area after she left and “was ranting and raving that he was going to fire or discipline anyone who left.”

The threat was a hoax, but it was the first such call to the courthouse in three years. Lazzarotti said managers acted too quickly in deciding that no one was at risk. “Brenda Hicks exercised better judgment that anyone else that day,” he said. “The county should have decided to evacuate the building, instead of deciding that they knew better than anyone else.”

Hicks said she’d never been through a bomb threat and was scared, for herself and the 6-year-old daughter she is raising alone. “I was a nervous wreck walking home,” she said. “I was so worked up, I was nauseous.”

She noted that while managers claim to believe the threat was a hoax from the beginning, deputies spent more than two hours combing the building. The threat was called in about 8:30 a.m. and the search was continuing when Hicks left at 10:40 a.m.

Six days after the incident, she was notified in writing that she faced disciplinary action and could be fired. The matter is before a county hearings officer, who has met with the parties twice. A third hearing was scheduled for Jan. 7, but the county asked for a postponement.

In the meantime, the union has filed two grievances that the county has agreed to arbitrate. The first is on behalf of all CWA-represented employees, charging that the county violated their right to a safe work environment by failing to evacuate. The second grievance stems from the county’s refusal to give Hicks holiday pay (time and a half), for Election Day, the day before the threat.

Hicks said the incident illustrates how important a union is. “The union has backed me 100 percent,” she said. “That’s something I feel really good about.”