Not for Women Only

What if your boss insisted that you choose between being a good provider or being a good parent? Three AFSCME women fought back and won.

Dawn Smith can’t remember a time when she didn’t want to be a police officer. This past November, after a grueling year of exams, interviews and polygraphs, she finally had her dream in sight: She had made the cut to become a police officer for the town of Manchester, Conn.

"I felt dynamite," says Smith, 35, who beat out over 1,000 initial applicants. "I really wanted that job."

As a police recruit, Smith, a member of AFSCME Local 1495 (Council 15), had one year to complete the state’s training program and take her place as a police officer. Then, three weeks into the academy’s 16-week program, she learned she was pregnant.

The academy threw her out. Smith told the academy director she would fight her dismissal in court and through her union.

"Where I grew up in Hartford, [Conn.], you fought for what you had and fought to keep it," says Smith. "I didn’t want anyone taking this job from me because I was pregnant."

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY. Smith is one of over 300,000 women in the United States who work in law enforcement, a field where women make up only 17 percent of the profession’s 1.7 million workers.

These women enter the profession for the same reasons as men — a decent salary, job security, benefits, respect, a desire to serve the community — and they face the same risks. These women, like all working women, find that they must fight to preserve their rights on the job. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) received 3,997 complaints of pregnancy discrimination in fiscal year 1997.

Labor unions can help enforce and strengthen federal anti-discrimination laws by filing grievances and taking other action when the laws are broken. They can also bargain contracts that protect pregnant women and nursing mothers on the job. A strong union can make the difference for a new mother.

Dawn Smith made that discovery. So did Truddy Lowe and Alenthia Epps.

MIRACLE BABY. Police trainee Smith was thrilled to learn that she was pregnant, even though she had just begun her course at the police academy. "It was awesome. A little miracle baby," she says, explaining that her doctor had believed she was unable to conceive.

She informed the academy of her pregnancy and her instructor suggested she finish her class work while she was pregnant and complete the physical training after giving birth. Accommodations were routinely made for trainees with temporary disabilities — even for trainees who failed one or more classes.

Two days later, however, the director called her into his office and dismissed her from the academy. "I was asked to leave because there’s a rule that you cannot miss more than five days of class," she recalls. "They anticipated I would miss more than five days: Someone pulled a crystal ball out of somewhere. I was floored. I said, ‘You’re kicking me out because I’m pregnant!’"

Smith called Council 15 and the union hired an attorney for her. "The union was behind me 100 percent," she says.

A court settlement got Smith back into the academy, briefly, but she was forced to leave again when she could not pass one physical exam without running — an activity she was under strict doctor’s orders to avoid.

The day she left, she says, "I got in the truck and cried on the way home."

Smith and the union pressed forward with an EEOC lawsuit. Finally, with this threat looming, the academy agreed that Smith would return to receive her training three months after the baby was born, but she would do it at a commuter program, where she could return home every night to nurse her child. The town of Manchester also agreed to extend her probation period.

"My career is delayed, but that’s okay because it wasn’t taken away from me," says Smith, who expects to give birth to a healthy baby this July. "It’s ridiculous that people would think that you have to leave your job because you’re going to have a baby. There was just no way I was going to shut up and go away."

HEAVY DUTY. Truddy Lowe didn’t get any special treatment as a pregnant corrections officer.

"There’s no light duty," says Lowe, 36, who works 12-hour shifts at a maximum-security, all-male facility in Wichita Falls, Texas. "You either do the job or you’re off duty. If that means standing at the gate, pat-searching inmates all day, that’s what you do. You’re exposed to all the diseases."

But when her pregnancy made her nauseated and she called in sick for the first time in six months, her supervisor said she wouldn’t be allowed to return to work without a note from her doctor. As a steward for AFSCME Local 3963 (Council 7), Lowe knew she didn’t need a note. But when she felt better the next day and wanted to come back without a note, her supervisor refused, making her use another 12 hours of sick leave.

"The lieutenant said I needed to have a doctor’s note because I was pregnant. They didn’t want to be responsible for anything that might happen to me," recalls Lowe. "Being a union steward, I knew it was wrong and it made me mad."

Lowe got a doctor’s note so she could get back to work — but she also filed a complaint with the EEOC which ruled in her favor a year later. She was awarded the 12 hours of sick leave she had lost when she tried to return.

Says Lowe, "I feel like I finally proved a point: that they couldn’t do that to us, they can’t just do anything they want to do."

With daughter Sierra Dawn now 10 months old, Lowe is taking a second look at her facility’s refusal to give light duty to pregnant women. Under the law, pregnant women are entitled to be treated like any other worker with a similar disability. Lowe says, "It wouldn’t be fair to tell us we can’t work there. I should be able to have a child and still be employed. I put my life in danger willingly, but I don’t want to put my child’s life in danger. But that’s what I had to do."

NOTHING EXTRA. Alenthia Epps, 36, was faced with a similar choice between her job and the health of her child. She had read the studies showing that breast-fed babies have fewer infections and are generally healthier. So when she had daughter LeeOndra last July, she wanted to breast-feed her — which meant she would have to pump breast milk during the day.

"I didn’t ask for anything extra, just to do it on the half-hour lunch break that the state offers me," says Epps, a corrections officer at Maryland Correctional Institution for Women (MCIW) and a member of AFSCME Local 1678 (Council 92). "I can’t be at work all day without pumping because the engorgement would be too painful. I had medical documentation of this."

Epps told the warden that when she returned from maternity leave, she wanted to pump at work. The warden refused her request. He told her that he was putting her on 30 days of leave without pay and if she hadn’t returned to work by the end of that time, she would no longer have a position at that facility.

Recalls Epps: "I said to him, ‘So you’re telling me that in order to have my position at MCIW, I’m going to have to let my breasts dry up.’ He said, ‘That’s the choice you made.’"

Epps went immediately to Council 92, which put pressure on the department through the media and the governor’s office. "I just felt it wasn’t right and it wasn’t fair," says Epps.

At the end of 30 days, Epps was allowed to return and to pump at work. The union has also filed a grievance demanding back pay for those 30 days of leave without pay.

"It’s not right that anyone can place restrictions [on whether I breast-feed] because I’m a corrections officer," says Epps. "It’s the healthiest thing for the baby."

Epps, Smith and Lowe found that with courage, determination and the help of the union, a healthy solution could be found for mothers, infants and managers alike.

By Alison S. Lebwohl

LEGAL PROTECTIONS

Federal laws and the Constitution help protect women in all professions from sex discrimination — and ensure that they can offer their children a minimal level of care without jeopardizing their jobs. These include:

• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which mandates that women affected by pregnancy or related conditions must be treated the same as other applicants or employees with similar abilities or limitations.
• The Family and Medical Leave Act, which mandates that employees have up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave each year to care for a newborn or recently adopted child or for a foster child recently placed in the employee’s care.
• The Constitution, which the Supreme Court has determined protects a woman’s right to nurture her children. This decision has been interpreted by lower courts to include breast-feeding.