Former United Way vice president claims his age and race were reasons he was fired

Clarence "Ron" Oliver said one of the first signs of trouble at work came in a meeting with his former boss, Bill Jackson, who retired at the end of 2021 as the president of the United Way of Erie County.

Oliver, who served more than a decade as the United Way's labor liaison, says that during a one-on-one meeting with Jackson on Aug. 2, 2021, Jackson told him he had news that he might not like.

The United Way was moving into a new home at 650 East Ave. and there wouldn't be room for Oliver to have an office of his own.

Oliver said Jackson told him he could "use the building, meetings, equipment and come and go as you please."

But it didn't work out that way, according to Oliver, who has filed a civil rights lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Erie that centers on his dismissal on Feb. 1, 2022.

In a lawsuit filed Aug 18 pro se, or without the help of an attorney, Oliver, 65, claims that leadership of the United Way discriminated against him between August 2021 and Feb. 1, 2022, the day his job was eliminated, during the tenures of both Jackson and Laurie Root, who has led the organization since the middle of August 2021.

The lack of office space was only a sign of a larger pattern, Oliver said in his lawsuit in which he requests: "a full apology, Job back and with full back pay or 10.7 million dollars."

That works out to be $1 million for every year of service to the United Way.

The lawsuit, which Oliver supports with copies of emails, board minutes and his own recollection, is punctuated by a conclusion repeated multiple times in his court filings: "Mr. Oliver believed that he was terminated because Laurie Root, President of the United Way of Erie County didn't want to work with Mr. Oliver, a black man in partnership under her leadership with a Vice President title, and no college degree."

Oliver's lawsuit claims, among other things, that he had been told he had full use of the office, even though he did not have a dedicated space there.

According to his lawsuit, in September of 2021, after Root had been named to be the organization's new leader, but before Jackson's departure, "Mr. Oliver was sitting in the United Way of Erie County conference room, when President Laurie Root came in and stated to Mr. Oliver, you can't sit in the Eastern Conference room anymore...Mr. Oliver was caught off guard and didn't know what to say. President Laurie Root's facial expression was very negative and very racial."

Oliver raised a related concern in a Nov. 1, 2021, email to Jim Ohrn, who served as chairman of the United Way board.

Oliver wrote: "President Laurie Root has created a hostile environment for me. It is very hard emotionally to come to work and know that you're not welcome anymore."

The email continues: "I am praying that everything will be alright going forward, but I will not be looked upon in a degrading manner."

As part of his lawsuit and in numerous emails, Oliver refers to Root's facial expressions as "racial and degrading."

In letters and in emails, Ohrn pushed Oliver to elaborate.

"You have made some very serious allegations," Ohrn wrote. "My goal is to fully understand and then address any substantiated reports as it is essential for the UWEC be inclusive, supportive and compassionate to all community citizens and to all employees."

Oliver was released from his position on Feb. 1, 2022. Notes from a board of directors meeting state that his dismissal was not based on his job performance.

According to Ohrn: "We love organized labor, but the reality we were investing $6,000 to $7,000 a month and receiving less than $3,000 in return. We looked at a formal cost analysis."

However, Oliver contends in his lawsuit that numbers might have been skewed because the United Way was mailing corporate pledge forms directly to union donors instead of mailing them labor pledge forms.

A change in direction

It might prove challenging for a jury to parse the meaning of Root's facial expressions.

But his lawsuit does offer a window into the United Way of Erie County at a time when it has de-emphasized its traditional ties to labor, expanded its support of community schools and focused on the often-mentioned goal of "crushing poverty."

Jack Lee, a Summit Township supervisor, president of Erie Crawford Central Labor Council and a member of the United Way board at the time, sees Oliver as a victim of those changes.

"Ron Oliver has been let go as the labor liaison and I was never forewarned that he did anything wrong, had a bad attitude or possibly was tardy for work," Lee wrote in a letter to the board. "What I do know is that Ron worked at his job very hard and lived the United Way and community service, 24/7 for the past 11 years."

At the time of Oliver's dismissal, Lee was one of two United Way board members with ties to organized labor. Jim Nuber, business manager for Local 56 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, was also a long-time member of the United Way board.

Lee said shortly after Oliver's last day on the job, both he and Nuber received packages in the mail that contained service plaques and letters from the United Way.

"It said that our terms were expired and that they were replacing us on the board," Lee said. "It said they are making changes and going in a new direction. It was a surprise. I didn't know the letter was coming."

Lee said he sees it as unfortunate if Oliver's job was a lost in the process of reinventing the organization.

"I am not personal friends with Ron Oliver, but he had this job buried in his heart," Lee said. "He was selling it 24/7. I couldn't get over in my mind why they didn't offer him another position."

He said, "I think it's a mistake."

And while contributions from labor had declined, Lee said much of the decline could be tied to a decision by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of American at Wabtec to discontinue contributions because of a dispute with United Way.

Lee said he thinks contributions from labor would have recovered in time.

"It just seems like they could keep chipping away at it," he said.

Official assessment

There has been no public suggestion that Oliver was fired for any job-related failure.

However, his lawsuit does include email from Root that suggest disagreement with some of his actions.

Writing about a father-and-son luncheon, she wrote: "Great concept but this is not aligned with the United Way's mission or work."

In the same email, she wrote: "Regarding UCAN and Youth Workforce Development Life Skills Course, that was not approved to move forward after review in 2019. Has something changed?"

Oliver's lawsuit suggests that the United Way anticipated the possibility of legal action.

A confidential United Way position statement dated Dec. 19, 2022, made the case that claims of racial and age discrimination made by Oliver were invalid.

The position statement concludes: "Oliver cannot establish a prima facia case of age, race or color discrimination against UWEC. Further, all employment actions taken by UWEC were supported by legitimate non-discriminatory reasons."

The source of some of the material contained in Oliver's lawsuit is unclear, but he includes comments said to have come from others who served on the board at the time.

In his lawsuit, Oliver cites what he said were comments from board member Gwendolyn White, who is vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion at Erie Insurance. Oliver told the Erie Times-News that those comments, which were critical of Oliver's dismissal, were paraphrased from a personal conversation he had with White.

White, however, said she had no recollection of having made the comments.

"I want to go on the record that I did not make those statements," White told the Erie Times News. "I have never spoken to Ron about the elimination of his position. I am emphatic about that."

The lawsuit also cites a statement from board member Marcus Atkinson, former executive director of the nonprofit ServErie.

The lawsuit claims that Atkinson said, "This decision to eliminate this position was made without prior communication. The decision about Mr. Oliver should be a completely separate issue with the board, as it just doesn't feel right to me."

Oliver said those comments were taken from United Way board minutes.

Oliver, who is working now at Accuride Erie, talked about his experience in an interview with the Erie Times-News.

"I wish this had never happened," he said. "I was here 10.7 years. I gave United Way my life. I know she (Root) is a very smart woman. I am not on her level. When she took over she made it clear she did not want to work side-by-side with an African-American man. For five months, my life was miserable."

'This is not how we operate'

In an interview, Root flatly rejected the suggestion that Oliver was the victim of discrimination.

"This is not how we operate," she said. "It's against the values of our organization. It certainly doesn't reflect how we treat anyone in the organization or the community."

To the contrary, she said, the United Way's focus on community schools is part of "a nationally recognized model for equity and for leveling the playing field for all children. That is what we focus on."

Root said that both the role the United Way plays in the community and the way it raises money have changed.

And one of those changes, the decline of the national workplace campaign, made it less important to maintain the position of labor liaison, she said.

"In the last 14 or 20 years, it (workplace fundraising) has gone down almost 40%," Root said. "That is why we had to change our model that looks at how we support our work."

In part, she said, that has meant investing a lot of money to raise money from organized labor is increasingly unproductive.

"We are always grateful for the partnership with labor," Root said. "And we welcome their support, but the world has changed."

While Oliver's lawsuit was filed on Aug. 18, papers had not been formally served to the United Way as of Sept. 28.

Root said she wasn't prepared to fully respond to the lawsuit. She did say in a statement that, "The alleged claim is meritless, and we plan to defend United Way of Erie County vigorously."

Even before Oliver's lawsuit, local labor leaders had registered concerns about his dismissal. When the United Way held its annual meeting in May, members and supporters of the Erie-Crawford Central Labor Council staged an informational picket outside.

More: Erie and Crawford union members picket dismissal of United Way employee

More: More help is on way for Erie High. United Way aims to make it a community school

Contact Jim Martin at jmartin@timesnews.com.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: United Way of Erie County says discrimination claim is 'meritless'