NAPE/AFSCME member Kitty Guthmiller, a Senior Highway Maintenance Worker in Central City prevailed in a grievance after she was not selected to fill a vacant position in Fullerton that she had applied for – despite being the most qualified and most senior applicant.
In our negotiated union contract, if there’s a vacant position, the most qualified applicant will be hired for the job. Where there are two or more equally qualified candidates, the most senior employee will get the job.
Kitty has worked for the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) for 30 years. She and the other candidate applying for the vacant position scored the same on their interview but despite being the most senior, Kitty was not hired for the position. She immediately contacted her union representative and a grievance was filed on her behalf.
“I thought I had the job hands down,” she said. “I’ve been here nearly 30 years and I’ve done everything – I’ve been on the interstate, I’ve plowed snow, I’ve done guardrail work – and my supervisors have always been impressed with my work.”
For nearly three decades Kitty has worked to ensure that the roads and highways her fellow Nebraskans travel are safe.
“I feel that I’m working for myself when I’m out on the road. I want it to look good and be safe. I want people to drive by and think the same thing,” she said. “In fact, I have neighbors who will probably be mad that I moved to a different yard because I usually plowed the road by my house and I always did it well.”
Kitty grew up working outside alongside her dad. She said that he taught her a lot about the value of hard work.
“When you’re the only woman on the roads it sometimes feels isolating, but my dad didn’t raise me to sit back and take crap from anybody,” she said. “I’m not afraid to work hard or get dirty and I know there’s really no job that I can’t do.”
An arbitrator ultimately ruled that NDOT violated our union contract by not hiring Kitty for the job in Fullerton. She has since begun working at her new yard and is happy she worked with our union to stand up for her rights, and the rights of all union members.
