I'm a Jew currently residing in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Between
Septmeber 20th, 2005 and July 18, 2006 I was employed at the Hilton
Hotel as a houseman, under Italian ownership. Although I didn't hear
any direct anti-Semitic slants I was shunned by most of my co-workers,
and my once even 3 co-workers hid my work cart and were only told by my
employer, Julie Antonio, not to do it again. Not even written up.
(Melanie Vujcic, Sarah Ecker and Vicki Gardner).
My supervisors didn't like me, and most of the times would talk down to
me and when I approached my boss to rectify the situation, I was
dismissed, that "I was paranoid", and that pattern of behavior repeated
itself again afterwards. This made me upset and I swore in frustration,
which prompted me to be written up by my boss, Julie.
I used to do my job better than anybody else, but when I was rewarded
the "Employee of the Month" award for January 2006 month, many people
got extremely jealous at me for that, and my co-worker at the time,
Lisa Wilson, told the other housepeople that "Why him, he's nothing but
a bum" and other slurs.
I did the garbage run 10 times a day at times, but when I was too busy
because I was with a guest, the supervisors would go on the
walkie-talkie "John, you should have done your garbage run 20 minutes
ago", but other people got the slack for that.
I am pretty sure that I was targetted primarily because I was a Jew:
Several times the night shift guy, Wayne Robbins, would brag to me that
he didn't do anything at night after 2 am, but drink and sleep, and
when me and other people went to Julie Antonio about it, we were
dismissed. Same thing applies to another employee, Asdrubal Quesada,
who being Hispanic (Cuban) and homo.ual got special privileges - 3
times the inspection caught him not changing the soiled linen, but he
was never written up by Julie Antonio.
When I was at the North Tower, Marco, who was the houseman in charge of
that tower, and other people would not change the newspapers' recycle
bins for a month. I brought it down, full of newspapers dating a month
back, and showed it to Julie. She yelled at me "don't bother me", and
went home at 11:00 because it was a Sunday. Then I proceeded to show it
to her assistant Shelly Culp, who dismissed me kindly about it. The
problem wasn't solved, and I had to do something that other people
didn't do. - pretty much doing their job.
I have never recieved a bravo-gram when I overdid myself, but other
people received it for minor things. Julie was attempting to prove that
I wasn't doing my job, but I did stuff that other people would slack on
- such as dusting the high legers.
Nobody ever called me anything relating to my Jewish heritage, but one
day at the smoke pit, I overheard one room attendant, Danny Parisi,
talking about the religious Orthodox Jews in an unfavorable light.(I'm
a cultural Jew, a non-praciticing one). He said "I will never
understand this religion, the can't turn on the light on Saturday, but
they can ride the elevator". When the Israeli-Lebanese conflict was
going on in July I was teased by some co-workers like "have you already
caught Bin Laden?", or some jests like "you come from a country that
has some problems - we need to be careful with you". I don't think it
was meant more than a joke, but one day, during the peak of the
Israeli-Lebanese war I explained my friend Steve the Bellman why Israel
was right to defend itself, when one cook, Larry McKinnon butted in
saying "The whole Middle East should go down in flame " - including
Israel - "All they do over there is fight". I didn't say the same thing
about Northern Ireland!
On July 15th, 2006, I was sitting at the table and a Native Indian guy,
Wayne Burnham was giving me the attitude after joining my table. All I
did was ask him how he was. I then called him a "&&&thead" , and he
threw something at me. Not wanting to be violent, I came after him and
we started arguing. He came out, in front of the cameras and pushed me.
I was hauled by Andrea, one of the supervisors into the office, and she
talked down to me, while Wayne continued to work there. I was later
informed that he was waiting for me outside the building but nobody
ever did anything regarding it. On July 18th, 2006, I was dismissed
while Wayne was merely written up.
I then received a very harsh dismissal letter from Julie Antonio,
stating that should I ever again set food at the Hilton, I am comitting
a trespassing and should be prosecuted and put in jail. I couldn't
collect Emplyment Insurance because the reason was "fired due to
misconduct".
I would like you to advise me what I can do and what am the
resources/opportunities open to me to fight this discriminiatory and
inhuman treatment. I'm so sorry that despite Canada's international
reputation as a tolerant country I was discriminated due to religious
bias, blatantly againt the Charter of Rights.
regards,
John
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