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Excerpts from Letters Written to Secretary Pena In Support of Joe Carson
From Mr. Jeff Hubrig, Knoxville, TN ...Mr. Floyd Glenn and Mr. Joe Carson have witnessed and experienced real issues of managerial mispractice affecting worker safety and safety to the public and the environment. They have reached their current status because they carried out their job assignments and met their stewardship commitments to their employers.....Their health and safety within the Oak Ridge community has become as great as any health and safety issue associated with conduct of operations. In fact, history has taught that Oak Ridge management has suppressed the truth to protect itself...If we lose Mr. Glenn and Mr. Carson; then who will be left, who will dare to come forward to stand for the truth . Please give Mr. Glenn and Mr. Carson the full measure of due process and let the truth stand resolved on its merit...
From Ms. Sherry Farver, Oak Ridge, TN ...How do you justify the repeated and persistent retaliation/persecution of Joe Carson and Floyd Glenn, Jr.? Mr. Carson is a Safety Engineer employed by the Department of Energy in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Mr. Glenn is a Security Inspector at the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant and employed by Lockheed Martin Energy Systems. These positions afford both men the occasion to witness questionable safety and environmental violations. Unfortunate? For those of us who work at the Oak Ridge Reservation and reside in the surrounding areas, absolutely not. For others such as their supervisors and various DOE/LMES managers, maybe so.....If you are unfamiliar with the details surrounding Joe Carson or Floyd Glenn, Jr., then I challenge you to become actively involved. If you have heard only one side of the story or only part of the story, then you cannot make an informed decision in this matter. I encourage you to take a long, hard look at what management is doing and how the laws to protect whistleblowers are blatantly ignored and violated...
From Ms. Cheryll Dyer, Clinton, TN ...It is actions such as what he has endured that need immediate attention and correction. I know you are well aware of the situation created by Mr. Carson's honesty and integrity. We depend upon people such as Mr. Carson to protect the workforce and if the harassment and retaliation continue towards him, it spreads the word to the workforce that health and safety are not the most important issues in the workplace...Please, Mr. Secretary, help us prove that the "system" can work and that those who try to protect the workers are not "troublemakers". ... If the DOE is allowed to "transfer" Mr. Carson, a message will be sent to the entire ORR that if you raise health and safety concerns you will be retaliated against. I am sure you do not want this to happen...
From Dr. Nicholas Dominguez, Oak Ridge, TN....Tengo confianza en que usted ayudara a que la situacion cambie. Es muy doloroso no recibir ayuda del DOE. Hoy me entere que DOE esta tomando represalias en contra del Senor Joseph Carson. Conozco al Senor Carson, es una persona de suma integridad, que cree religiosamente en las leyes. Y que suena que con sus esfuerzos DOE puede mejorarse sobre todo en no tomar represalias en contra de empleados que hablan de lo mal de las medidas de seguridad de DOE. Por favor no permita que las represalias en contra de el se lleven a cabo. El tiene 3 hijos, que yo conozco. Son tan pequenos como los mios. Yo en carne propia he sufrido represalias muy dolorosas...
I AM HOPEFUL THAT YOU WILL HELP TO CHANGE THE PRESENT SITUATION. IT IS VERY PAINFUL NOT TO BE HELPED BY DOE. TODAY, I LEARNED OF A NEW REPRISAL AGAINST MR. JOSEPH CARSON. I KNOW MR. CARSON, HE IS A PERSON OF THE HIGHEST INTEGRITY, WHO RELIGIOUSLY FOLLOWS THE LAW. HE DREAMS THAT HIS EFFORTS WILL MAKE DOE BETTER, MAINLY IN HAVING A DOE FREE OF REPRISALS. PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW REPRISALS AGAINST HIM TO TAKE PLACE. HE HAS 3 CHILDREN, WHOM I MET. THEY ARE AS LITTLE AS MINE. I KNOW HOW PAINFUL REPRISALS COULD BE...
From David Hackett, P.E., Knoxville, TN....Like it or not, Joe Carson has been made by DOE management into a symbol of his very point that a chill has been spread over the freedom of an employee to express his concerns. While it appears that this is a message that will not be heard, denying its validity is at the heart of the issue of the whistleblower treatment. As a symbol, Mr. Carson's case is critical....
From Standing for Truth About Radiation (STAR), East Hampton, NY...Joe Carson has performed a valuable and patriotic community service for citizens concerned about the hazards at BNL and has acted honorably in attempting to maintain the integrity of DOE, holding it accountable for appropriate safety procedures and proper investigations of past accidents. Were Carson to be precipitously reassigned as currently contemplated, DOE would be sending the wrong signal to its employees who should be encouraged to come forward and make public their expert knowledge of unsafe practices at DOE facilities without fear of retaliation....We urge you to make good on your December 22nd pledge to give better protection for DOE whistleblowers. Give us an indication of your good faith by stopping the abrupt and unjustified reassignment of Joe Carson and by irecting DOE to accept Carson's June 1997 settlement offer to use DOE's Office of Hearing and Appeals, according to DOE's own rules for resolving allegations of whistleblower reprisal, to publicly adjudicate this matter. It is time to put an end to DOE's six-year long cruel war of attrition against this man and his family. He has served DOE loyally and faithfully as an ethical and competent professional engineer. Without the knowledgable assistance of employees such as Carson, you, as Secretary of DOE, and we, the public, will be terribly handicapped in our efforts to clean up the toxic legacy of BNL and other facilities around the country. ...
From Mr. Will Dye, from the internet ....Joseph Carson is a nuclear safety assessor for the DOE. He reports that he has experienced reprisals for "whistle-blowing" regarding safety violations at DOE-supervised nuclear facilities.. ..I've read his account of the situation. I cannot offer any firm conclusions regarding the validity of his complaints without going through an intensive investigation myself, but for what it's worth, I'm willing to offer my opinion that his tale has a sufficient "ring of truth" to merit further investigation. It's important to reassure DOE employees that they need not fear reprisals for "whistle-blowing"...My involvement in the matter is strictly coincidental. I am not a DOE employee, nor am I involved in the energy or transportation business. I'm a computer programmer who heard about his story through the Internet....
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