COALITION AGAINST ORGANIZATIONAL DISCRIMINATION PART 2

COALITION AGAINST ORGANIZATIONAL DISCRIMINATION
                                 
The group of people gathered on July 29, 2014 outside the Post Office at Unity Plaza in Hartford’s Northend. They decided to discuss being employees of state run agencies and facing discrimination / bias. In attendance were employees of color representing the Department of Corrections that filed a class action lawsuit [ 2013] alleging Organizational Discrimination. Eric Hundley author of the book The Dark Side of Child Protection Services (2014) opened up the event by explaining what OD is and the pernicious effect it has in the workplace. Eric announced the formation of Coalition Against Organizational Discrimination in order to bring issues to public attention.

Atiya K.Sample Attorney at Law spoke next on behalf of Dept. of Correction employees in attendance and part of the lawsuit. Her comments described how people of color are affected by OD, making workplace environments toxic and how this needs to be changed. Ebony Murphy-Root and Jonathan Pelto are candidates for political office ( the former for Lieutenant Governor, the latter Governor ) they both said that discrimination in the workplace is problematic in Connecticut and needs to be publicly analyzed in order to properly eliminate it. At the end of the announcement I spoke about how people fight OD individually often losing against agencies with power and money. I then explained how it is necessary for people to unite behind an entity like C.A.O.D. in order to achieve success.

Here is the thesis statement of C.A.O.D. given by Eric Hundley:

Organizational discrimination has a ubiquitous presence within the work climates of virtually all state agencies.  This brand of discrimination has discernible patterns and evident impacts upon afflicted populations.  To date initiatives to address organizational discrimination have been grossly in effective, as they have fallen short of addressing the systemic components which support the incessant presence of organizational discrimination.

As agents for change, we are dedicated to empowering those impacted by organizational discrimination; such victims also tend to belong to populations historically marginalized.  In the spirit of advocacy, through the approach of social responsibility, the prevalence of organizational discrimination will be challenged, no longer requiring vulnerable employees to shoulder this collective burden in silence and solitude.

http://www.caodct.org/