Two Boston City Hall employees who were "reprimanded and
threatened with dismissal" for wearing anti-Fenway Park
buttons to work "slapped" Mayor Thomas Menino and the city
with a federal civil rights suit yesterday, according to
Shelley Murphy of the BOSTON GLOBE. The "offending" buttons,
printed by Service Employees Int'l Union Local 285, which
represents city clerical and technical workers, carry a
"variety" of messages, including: "Millions for Fenway While
City Workers Eat Hot Dogs," and "No Contract, No Fenway."
Menino spokesperson Carol Brennan said that "due to the
pending lawsuit, she could not comment on why the employees
were disciplined." However, she did say the city "does not
have a no-button policy, and the city recognizes people's
rights to wear buttons that make statements about areas of
public concern." The buttons were circulated this month to
"protest the fact that union members have been without a
contract" since June '99, while the Mayor has "supported a
plan for the city" to contribute $140M toward a new Fenway
Park. Brennan said that the two City Hall employees, Lucia
Thomas and John Shea, "have filed grievances with the city."
The suit accuses city supervisors "of prohibiting the union
buttons because they didn't like their message." Local 285
Attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan: "The city is infringing on its
workers' right to speak out on an important issue: the city's
proposed spending of millions of dollars on a private
baseball stadium while city workers don't have a contract,
are making substandard wages, and have inadequate benefits."
Liss-Riordan "urged" U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf to hold an
"emergency hearing on her request to order the city to allow
its workers to wear the buttons" (BOSTON GLOBE, 8/17).
