If you know whose derrière Mayor Michael Bloomberg was admiring, please give The New York Daily News a call at (212) 210-1585.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Bloomberg Maternity Leave Discrimination Update
In the summer before the 2009 mayoral election, Mayor Michael Bloomberg was deposed twice -- for a total of almost 8 hours -- in connection with a major federal, class-action lawsuit brought by 65 employees of the mayor's media empire. The employees have accused the mayor's company of systematically discriminating against pregnant women, who took maternity leave.
To no one's surprise, the details of the mayor's shocking deposition testimony were somehow suppressed before his embarrassingly little win in the November 2009 election.
During some of his testimony, the mayor gave a lot of nasty attitude to a female attorney, Kam S. Wong, who worked at the time for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and who questioned the mayor. It is not clear from an article about deposition excepts published by The New York Times if Ms. Wong questioned the mayor in both of the depositions.
The Times describes the mayor's attitude toward the female attorney as ''patronizing,'' ''unsympathetic,'' as well as ''sarcastic,'' and, at ''one point in his testimony,'' Mayor Bloomberg also ''mocked'' Ms. Wong.
The Times reported that excerpts of the mayor's deposition testimony showed numerous examples of ''moments of thrust and parry, irritability and self-assuredness bordering on cockiness,'' which ''are perhaps the most striking parts of Mr. Bloomberg’s deposition in a federal discrimination lawsuit against Bloomberg L.P., the giant financial services and media corporation that he founded.''
At one point, when Ms. Wong read a portion of Mayor Bloomberg's memoir into the record, which was about how the mayor held grudges against employees who took leave from his company, the mayor became patronising and belittling to Ms. Wong. Instead of addressing the subject of how the mayor's company treated employees, who took leave from his company, the mayor was sarcastic about how Ms. Wong actually read the portion of the book.
“Your reading is good,” the mayor retorted, according to The Times.
The federal, class action lawsuit covers a period of time in his company's office culture after Mr. Bloomberg had already become mayor. The Times reported that recent legal filings by the E.E.O.C. indicate what the commission ''asserts to be a pattern among company executives, not only of bias, but also of outright hostility toward women who took maternity leave, with some executives suggesting that they did not deserve to work for Bloomberg L.P.'' In his defense, the mayor said that he ''lost track'' of what was going on at Bloomberg L.P., after he became mayor, in spite of the fact that Mayor Bloomberg is an infamous control queen, who is obsessed with mayoral control over everything that he gets involved with, be it snow removal or the CityTime project.
In spite of his supposed defense, Bloomberg L.P. has a reputation for being a good old time ''boys’ club.'' In one example, The Times reported that Mayor Bloomberg was alleged to have compared women taking maternity leave with men wanting to take time off from work to play golf -- in other words, in the mayor's mind, maternity leave was a foolish expectation that pregnant women had, namely, to get paid for goofing off. In another example, whilst Mayor Bloomberg still controlled his company, Mr. Bloomberg was outright sued by an employee. The employee alleged that after she became pregnant, Mr. Bloomberg personally made a demand that she have an abortion. The Times reported that, at the time, Mr. Bloomberg told her to just, “Kill it!” Supposedly, Mr. Bloomberg adamantly denied any wrongdoing in the abortion case, and The Times reported that the abortion case was settled ''out of court for an undisclosed amount.''
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Bloomberg Pregnancy Discrimination Update ?
New York Class-Action Pregnancy Discrimination Lawsuit Against Media Giant Bloomberg L.P.
A couple of years ago ago, it came to light that Mayor Michael Bloomberg was deposed in the pregnancy discrimination case against his company.
''The female employees allege that Bloomberg violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, by engaging in a pattern or practice of demoting and reducing their pay after they became pregnant and returned from maternity leave. Further, the female employees allege that pregnant women and new mothers were excluded from management meetings, denied promotional opportunities, and subjected to stereotyping about their abilities to do their jobs because of preconceived family responsibilities.''
Has anybody heard any updates on this case ?
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Misogynistic Mayor may cost Quinn her Leadership
The mayor doesn't like discussing the subject of the class action sexual harassment case against him and his company.
In addition to the pattern of sexual harassment and discrimination at Bloomberg L.P., look at how Mayor Michael Bloomberg has treated New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
Quinn's power base is now in question -- following her close association with Mayor Bloomberg> and his controversial push for third term extensions.
Bloomberg tricked Quinn into doing his dirty work on extending term limits, and then left her out to fend herself against voter anger. More evidence of his bias against women.
From The New York Times : Answers About Michael R. Bloomberg, Part 2 :
Q. Are the sexual harassment issues that are being brought against Bloomberg L.P. recent, or were they prior to his terms as mayor? If they are later than 2002 hasn’t he divested himself from any active role in the company and should it not be a relevant issue? If events occurred during his company stewardship, that is a different matter and should be brought to bear in the current campaign. Would you comment on this subject? — Posted by Ned Brody
A. A complicated subject. Mr. Bloomberg and his company faced three sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits when he was still in charge of Bloomberg L.P. One suit, by a woman who charged Mr. Bloomberg with snapping “Kill it!” when she told him she was pregnant, claimed that he and other company executives subjected women to “repeated and unwelcome” sexual comments and overtures. That suit was settled the year before Mr. Bloomberg became a mayoral candidate. He did not admit guilt, and the plaintiff accepted an undisclosed sum and agreed to remain forever silent. A second harassment suit was dropped because of legal blunders by the woman’s lawyer, and a third was withdrawn after the plaintiff’s husband, another Bloomberg employee, pleaded guilty to stealing from the company.
We need to liberate the women who work around Mayor Bloomberg.

