VICTORY: Health Department Worker Gets Justice!

Your Union wins cases and grievances all year long. Our Representatives and Shop Stewards have gotten wronged employees back pay, promotions they deserved, and even saved people their jobs. But because of privacy and legal issues, we cannot always discuss these victories in detail publicly. Here’s one we can talk about...

Ruth Berry, an animal control officer at the Metro Health Department was terminated in a 2006 incident related to “improper and unlawful euthanization”, even though Ruth was simply assisting a doctor who was actually conducting the procedure. While the doctor was suspended for the incident, it was Ruth who was fired.

After a lengthy legal fight with the Union by her side, Ruth’s firing was overturned by a judge, who ordered that Ruth should be hired back with full benefits and some $20,000 in backpay. “It wasn’t fair that I was fired for helping out a co-worker,” Ruth says. “I love my job and I love animals. Even though mistakes were made that day, none of them justified me being fired. I’m grateful that the Union and their attorneys stuck by me the whole time”.