Halito

Halito, I am just starting my blog and not quit sure where to start. So I will start with a short introduction then I guess I will start with the negative so I can get it out of the way and move on to bigger and better things. I am a 44 year young women with a 15yr old daughter and I am a fitter/welder by trade. I came out at the age of 39 after 9 years of counseling when I met my partner Lori and have been with her every since, we are the lucky care givers of a small piece of Mother Earth in Kelso WA up in the hills where it is quite and tranquil. We have two rescued horses (one is due to foal any day), two rescued wolves, five Chihuahuas, 19 Rhode Island Red chickens, three Muskogee Ducks (what I refer to as the ugly ducks, lol) and 8 cats that came with the property. I have an Art degree and at 41 I went back to college and got a welding degree, and my WABO certification.

For over a year I have worked at a Valve company in Woodland Washington as a fitter/welder. My supervisor Eli (a young guy) has put me through pure hell for almost this whole time. He gave me a derogatory nick name, belittled me, degraded me, slammed me, messed with my machinery, by passed me with someone who had never welded before, has gotten me injured on several occasions and done about anything he can to make my life a living nightmare at work and sabotage my welding career at this company. He would give the guys all the overtime, not tell me that we where coming in earlier, not tell me about safety meetings, screwed me out of two raises and gave me half the bonuses that the men got. I tried my best to work things out with this guy many, many times through out the year as he was my supervisor and I didn't like the tension it caused in the fab shop, but no matter what I did or said or how hard I tried the fact was that Eli didn't like me for some reason.

If it was just the fact that Eli didn't like me, I could have cared less, I am there to do a job not make friends. I am there to make a living so I can go back home to my family, it just so happens that I LOVE to weld so its not even like a job, however Eli has made it a nightmare. I had even tried going to Eli's supervisor to get things straitened out between us to no avail. So, because of Eli's actions I was left with no choice but to go to the owner and file a complaint against Eli. The company did an investigation if you can call it that, as it was a joke. They found for Eli and backed him up, even though I had several of the other men who stuck up for me, and even though he lied to them (they had a sworn statement from Eli that he had never touch my machinery then admitted to doing it during the investigation, but only for 5 months) It was told to me that Eli messed with my machinery see if I could recalibrate my machinery. The company turned a complaint about harassment from my supervisor into a sexual orientation complaint.

After the investigation one of the guys who stuck up for me got written up, they where dogged after they stuck up for me, and one was eventually fired, while Eli got promoted. As for myself I was also dogged then I was put out on light duty, as I had been working even though I injured myself back in August (another Eli incident, my limitation was no lifting, pushing or pulling over 50 pounds) If you go in for the rumor mill they are just waiting for me to get off light duty to let me go. The fact is that they have already replaced me and let me go, they just have not informed me about this, but they did tell my rehabilitation councilor from L&I.

This was the last straw with me. I have worked in men's fields most my life, and I have never had a man or company treat me with such blatant disrespect and disregard as a human being. If they would have admitted to what happened, had Eli apologize and fixed the problem, it would have been done and over with and we would have moved on, but that is not what they did. The covered up and backed him up. This company has shown that they don't give a damn about me as a person or as an employee so why should I care about them as an employer.

I have said enough is enough, and I turned this company into the Human Rights Commission, and to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. So now I am waiting to see what they will do. Mean while, I already have applications out and when I am released to go back to work, I will not be going back to this company, but will find one that treats there employees with respect. Well, I guess that is all for now. Peace and Harmony