From: vernon.a.davidson.dav@gmail.com
To: William Davidson, Jay Ridenour, Ludwig MO, Tim Stone, Dustin Redden, mkharley69@icloud.com, Curtis Brassel, Josh Hawley, Terry Meier, Kevin York, Randy Zelznick
Sent: Wed, May 28 at 12:41 PMStatement of Vernon Davidson Jr.
Yesterday at the beginning of my shift Nikki Shoemake asked me to come to the office.
I was told that I was being given a job discussion so there was no need for a steward. I had not asked for one at that point.
I was given the attached job discussion for being AWOL as a no-call, no-show on Sunday, May 25, 2025 and tardy for that morning.
I scratched through the “absence” typed into the allegations against me listed in the job discussion, initialed it & signed the form. Nikki asked me why I altered her form and I told her that I was notified by my friend & union steward, Jay Ridenour, that I was no longer being required to work on Sunday, because Jason Barnes was erroneously recorded as being on Annual Leave that day. As I told Nikki, Jay Ridenour is NOT going to tell someone this unless it had already been discussed and resolved with Management. I was asked to comment, I told Nikki that I felt that I was getting a lot of unwarranted attention from Brittany Porter as of late. I told her that I understand that Brittany has some kind of beef with me and she’d be better off “laying off and not poking the bear”.
Nikki said, “I don’t think you should be threatening anyone.” I immediately told her that I needed to stop her right there and make sure she understood exactly what I was saying. I told her that I have in the past used the EEOC process where the grievance procedure fails to resolve or protect my right to work in a non-retaliatory, harassment-free environment in the workplace. I told her that management has tried more than once to fire me in violation of ELM 666 & and I don’t play around with their tactics. I do not give an inch on this anymore, it has cost me too much. I’ll use the EEOC process again and as many times as I have to in order to protect myself. I let her know exactly the context and intent of my words. I understand threats very well. My job has been threatened numerous times since I first became a USPS Whistleblower. I needed to clarify.
If it was even remotely believed that I present a threat to myself or others, why was I not immediately removed from the building? Because they know that I am only a threat to the waste, fraud and abuse that has been perpetrated on our people and to the District Managers who continue to continue it all and cover it up.
I feel it ironic that management felt compelled to point out the Disabled Afghanistan veteran with ZERO criminal history but a known diagnosis of Service-Connected PTSD to throw out the “threat” accusation. I have been playing defense against some of the nastiest, most unethical people people in USPS management I have ever met. People wonder why wartime veterans have difficulty coming home and fitting in when so much has changed for us. The stigma of going postal finally faded but I guess in the USPS the crazy, fucked up veteran stigma still stands. I am not surprised, one former plant manager abolished my job and intentionally put me in a job that she knew would injure my shoulders. She did and I dislocated a shoulder. This resulted in my first “EEO”. This was when I learned the difference between USPS EEO and filing a formal charge with the EEOC.
Another supervisor and plant manager attempted to fire me for missing work while being off for a year for total shoulder replacement surgeries. District Management knew I was a major pain in the ass last time they screwed our facility over and tried to close us down. I got my first letter to “come to the office” on June 6, 2021. On June 8, 2021, the USPS announced Cape Girardeau operations would be moved starting on August 1, 2021.
If you are thinking “they can’t do that!”, oh but they can. They did. What stopped it? EEOC and the USPS relocated them assholes to better hunting grounds with softer targets.
About that tardy….
I was tardy that morning because I had a VA appointment that, like all of them I can, I got scheduled outside my normal work schedule. The community care provider needed additional bloodwork, so I tried getting it done at the VA. The VA sent me to St. Francis for the blood draw, since my specialty card provider for this case was also there.
My appointment was at 0945 hours, as I always do my best to schedule my appointments pre-Tour. My hours are 1100-1900.
As always, if I am running late due to an appointment, I let my manager(s) and at least 1 coworker know what’s going on. Unlike with our local management, who give me ZERO advanced notification when I am(or any of us) is scheduled alone on the dock (a major safety issue). This means I come in with nothing set up on the dock, no placards (even the wrong ones) printed or prepared. I get to start 1 hour behind schedule, working in unsafe conditions alone on the dock and left to figure out how to collect, PROPERLY secure, verify register seal numbers and transcribe the data manually to our daily reports, get trucks received, dispatched, loaded, unloaded, trailers inspected for defects, security and safety checks on the interior-exterior of the dock area and ensure I don’t get caught in the back of a truck pulling out unexpectedly because the USPS district management saw fit to staff us to death. This is a step 2 safety issue in itself.
District & local Management’s answer to these and all other safety concerns on the dock:
I am requesting a Step 2 safety grievance to be filed on the dock lack of staffing issue. I also request a grievance be filed under ELM 666 for inappropriate use of the Service-Connected injuries and illness of a 100% Permanent & Total Rated Veteran (OEF-V 04-05). This is a direct violation of the code of ethics under ELM 666.
I am requesting a separate grievance for retaliation for submitting numerous complaints to management on the safety issues with dock staffing and after I submitted a PS 1767 on the issue, I am brought in for a “job discussion that is escalated to me making verbal threats. Riiiight. Can I please get an RFI for all PS 1767’s filed by me in this facility for the past 4 years? This is required for an OSHA Whistleblower complaint I’ll be filing as soon as possible.
I am not playing around with District management. They can come at me directly or find another soft target. I ain’t your guy.
If there is anything more I have missed or that is needed from me, please do not hesitate to email me.
In the spirit of transparency and full disclosure, I will be forwarding this communication to USPS OIG, Senator Hawley’s office & outside veterans organizations.
If they treat our veterans this way, I can only imagine what they are doing to non-vet USPS employees who cooperate with OIG?
I am reaffirming my statement. I need congressional whistleblower protection. The USPS OIG SIU cannot be depended on to protect us, from my own personal experience.
Vernon Davidson Jr
US Army/USN Seabee Vet
27+ year USPS Clerk/APWU Member.
