Minorities Lose Jobs

Minorities deceived, SBA is bias, SBA is prejudice. 

Part 1, “Minorities Deceived” The SBA government asked Turner to try doing the job without the help of the larger Wall Street Money Contractor; “JW Danforth Co.” because hiring minorities workers is required that inevitably would lead to a war, that VAMC in Washinton DC fought with me! 

Veteran’s Affairs in Washington DC, were aware and supported all efforts in hiring minorities and veteran soldiers.  Veteran’s affairs also requested me making the government job more “minority friendly.”  Mr. Ramsey Alexander the VAMC official was in charge of the government’s minority participation on federal government jobs. 

Request that Mr. Howard Swartzman VAMC and Mr. Ramsey Alexander of VAMC release the government tapes.  Which proofs JW Danforth Co. actions were in fact illegal against the SBA and VAMC by discriminating against hiring minority workers. 

What happened to the SBA report that was turned into the Buffalo District Director office of the SBA; about on the job discrimination and acts of bad behavior filed with the government?  Was it ignored? Was it lost or misplaced?

Deceived explores why the larger contractor may have had acted in bad faith in the partnership and the outcome of the conflict.  Who won the war? You be the judge.

Don’t miss Part-2 sequel, “Kenya: Rehabilitation” which includes inspirations from the Kenyan Rehabilitation School to work hard like our President Barack Obama.

“Brain Surgery & Fifteen Years of Rehabilitation”

Dear Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Family representing the 8th District of the people in Arizona and this great nation. I personally know the great hardships and struggles ahead that you are facing thru your upcoming efforts in rehabilitations. Please be strong for your family and everyone.

Yes, I personally had brain surgery after a massive stroke, and the operation left me totally wiped out, unconscious for almost thirty days too! Then after the operation I woke up with no memory, no capabilities of speech and talking. For many months I could not even wipe my own tears, plus I could not sleep because I questioned why God left me alive in this state.

Today I am still paralyzed but only fifty percent and I feel great knowing that God allowed me to recover and walk and talk again, after fifteen years of rehabilitation therapy training. I know from my own experience in rehabilitations that learning to have balance again is mighty difficult also. The Doctors also recommended to me to learn a foreign language which helped me tremendously because I had to start all over again. May God continue blessing you for the quickest recovery because I am most definitely praying for you and your family!

SBA Minority Contractor
Sherman L. Turner

Kenya: Rehabilitation (The Sequel) Part – 2

My name is Sherman L. Turner. I reside in Buffalo, New York. In 1995, at the age of fifty-four, I suffered a massive stroke when a blood vessel burst in my brain; this left me in a coma for several weeks. From the time I regained consciousness until now, in 2010, I have been doing rehabilitation training.

After more than fifteen years of rehabilitation therapy, I am able to speak the truth about the trials of being an honest contractor, an ethnic minority, working for the US government, and a member of the Small Business Administration (SBA) asked me if I could hire and train minority workers on government contract jobs. I told them “Yes I can.”

Then I learned the hard fact that my contracting partners, who were white and therefore in the majority I referred to them as the “Wall Street Money Contractors” had other plans. I had to fight off this large company, which did not cooperate with its prior written and verbal agreement with the SBA 8(a) and me. This prior agreement stipulated that I would operate a legitimate contracting company, hiring minorities and providing training for them, with job opportunities on government contract jobs.

I thought that being in the SBA 8(a) contracting program would bring my dream of success. Instead, it was the beginning of a big discrimination fight over hiring minorities on two jobs that I had with the government at the Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMC) and the West Valley Nuclear Services. My white contracting partners did not like my hiring and training minorities. They wanted me to hire non-minorities and to not provide training or jobs for minorities.

An ugly misunderstanding existed with regard to my hiring minorities, as per my agreement and contractual obligations with the government. But the misunderstanding was not mine, because I always was very clear that being the government minority contractor meant that I would make every effort to hire and train minorities. I could not understand why wealthy (“Wall Street Money Contractors”) worth millions or billions of dollars, would resent my hiring minorities. To me, it seemed crazy, but I did notice that my white contracting partner often seemed jealous that I provided my minority workers with excellent training.

I wrote about my dealings with the “Wall Street Money Contractors” and my struggles as a minority contractor in my first book, “Minorities Deceived.”  I’ve chosen to write this sequel because it took many years of rehabilitation therapy and a lot prayer. Now I’m able to remember many incidents that previously were lost memories.

“Wall Street Money Contractor” Declares War against Small Minority Contractor

The SBA asked my contracting firm to bid on a West Valley Nuclear Services job because they needed minority participation.  They wanted a minority company to hire minority workers, which I thought was really nice.  I told them “Yes, I can” when they asked if I could hire young minority folks from Buffalo, New York.  The unemployment rate in Buffalo for minority youth was the highest in the country at that time, so it was easy to honor the SBA’s request.

I simply hired young people who were looking for a job; they all were younger than twenty-five years old.  They were highly motivated to learn and train for a nuclear facilities job.  West Valley chose my bid, and so I hired the young minorities and made sure they received the proper training for nuclear jobs.  These minority workers were outstanding.

All of a sudden, things changed with the white contractors they tried to hire only white plumbers and ignored me as an equal partner.  They also acted innocent when I confronted them about these issues, which were against federal contracting laws.  The government had requested that I inform the white contracting firm about these contractor violations.  In fact, all my actions were mandated by the government, such as hiring minority workers from unions and setting up available training programs for minority workers.

The white contractors wanted only one minority worker hired.  I had made arrangements with the union for full cooperation for this job, and I hired five minority workers.  The white contractors tried to blackball the one minority worker; fortunately, their attempts were unsuccessful, and this minority worker eventually became our best worker on the job.

When the minority workers heard what the white contractor was discriminating against me for obeying the law and hiring minority workers, they won the new contract and showed all that they were not inferior.  That was how we won the Contractor of the Year award.  (Please see “Special Awards Received” in Appendix A.)

Then, at the VAMC job, the white contracting company tried to incite the white plumbers to not work and to strike against the black plumbers.  They said I’d hired too many black plumbers, and whites were losing their jobs because of it.

When I next visited the job, all the plumbers black, other minorities, and whites told me that nobody was quitting because the white contractor said something.  As a matter of fact, the plumbers told me that it was the white companies that discriminated against them, not the plumbers union.  This was a great victory for a legitimate minority firm and a greater victory for the unions and a first in western New York.  The mighty Wall Street-money contractor was very upset.

The black and white plumbers all stuck together after they all learned about the trouble with the white contractor.  At all my jobs, on three different sites, the black and white plumbers held fast and represented me with courage.

Please send me your comments on what would you have done in this type situation; working for the government?

SBA and Veterans Administration Medical Centers at War with “Wall Street Money Contractor”

Prior to my bidding the job, I met with government and SBA officials, as there were absolutely no minorities on workforce reports, and they were concerned about the lack of minority worker participation in government jobs.  When they asked if I could hire more than one minority on the government jobs and make sure minorities got trained, I answered, “Yes I can.”  This job would be more “minority-friendly.”  I would not only make an effort to hire more than one minority worker; I would request the union to do the same.

Because I was an experienced minority contractor, I knew that many of the white contractors were abusing the real intent of hiring blacks and minorities.  They might help a minority contractor get bonding they called that their minority participation but they did not hire or establish any training programs for blacks and other minorities.  Additionally, these white contractors stuck together because they often were family members, sat on the boards that governed the makeup of union memberships and training for local jobs.  There was not any local minority representation on the boards for any jobs offered in the minority communities, nor were any apprenticeships offered.

Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, this situation remains unchanged.  The chances of minorities getting jobs is at a low point due to the discrimination practices of the hiring boards in construction and the unions, which are controlled by the “Wall Street Money Contractors.”  This must stop!  This must change!

In the early 1990s, the board’s selection process for plumbing journeymen and apprenticeship applications each year affected the minority communities’ opportunity to learn trades.  Most minority communities did not yet have representation, but the unions in this area did not offer solutions to this problem — a problem that tremendously affected the employment of minority youth.

One method could have been to set up a community monitoring agency, with contractors and a union board in a joint effort, to monitor all federal funded jobs.  In this way, black and other minority workers could do physical work on jobs with meaningful training, instead of the board’s evading or not hiring minorities by using third and fourth-tier subcontractors, which is outdated and illegal.

As I stated above my prior meeting in Washington DC, at the 810 Vermont Street Building with the government officials, which requested and stated to me to hire minorities and females without any discrimination on federal government contract jobs.  Also to enforce the same for all my subcontractors and their subcontractors too.  The government was serious and I said “this government job would be more minority-friendly” even if the mighty “Wall Street Money Contractors” controlled and discriminated jobs in New York State.  I smiled and told the government official “you know this means war.”  The government official told me, ”you have your orders, and you work for the government.”

These situations that still exist in todays federally funded contract jobs?  Please send your comment on what should be done?

“Sherminator Fights War”

After returning from Washington DC, and meeting with VAMC Officials to hire veterans and minorities on government construction contract jobs. The federal government told me that western New York State lacked hiring minorities and veterans on construction jobs. Also for me to report to VAMC because SBA in Buffalo, New York could not be trusted anymore. I was told “they have a problem within their own staff supervisor.”

Not being able to trust SBA in the cities of Buffalo and Rochester New York would definitely make my job more difficult in hiring more veterans and minorities. Now making the job more “Minority Friendly” as per my direct orders from Washington DC, does present a problem?

This would be the first time the government would step in trying to rectify what should have been done during the civil right days long ago. When the VAMC Contracting Officer told me the very next day after I got back from the meeting in Washington DC, that my white partners the “Wall Street Money Contractors” behind my back hired all “white Plumbers and Steamfitters, ten men,” said the Federal Contracting Officer. I could not believe it! This can’t be true because I promised Washington that this job would be different and made available for equal job employment for all and “Minority Friendly” too!

The next day I had to take control of my job and I fired five white plumbers and hired five minority plumbers. Yes I told everyone nicely that this job as directed by the government in Washington DC will be equal employment opportunities for all. After that day forward all my plumbers started calling me “The Sherminator” and not Sherman anymore.

This was just the beginning of the war for veterans and minority’s rights.

Sherman L. Turner
The Sherminator