Peterson workers file petition over Obama picBy Dan Elliott - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Feb 23, 2009 18:48:50 EST
DENVER — Civilian workers at an Air Force Base in Colorado have filed a union grievance over the removal of a portrait of President Barack Obama from the base commissary.
Obama’s photograph was on a sign at the Peterson Air Force Base commissary in Colorado Springs listing the store’s Presidents’ Day hours for Feb. 16, commissary employee Lavonda Bacon said. She said it was replaced Feb. 10 with a sign with no picture.
Bacon said the store’s director, Andrew J. Brookes, told employees that a customer had complained that Presidents’ Day was meant to honor George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, not current presidents. Bacon, who orders store merchandise from suppliers, said she believes the day honors all presidents and that she and other workers suspect racism was behind the complaint.
“What’s not to like about the picture other than that he’s a black man?” Bacon said Monday.
Bacon, a member of the American Federation of Government Employees, said she and 12 other union members filed a grievance with Brookes demanding that Obama’s picture be posted at the commissary.
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