Firings Racially Motivated, Bus Drivers Allege : Torrance: Group says six black transit workers lost their jobs in a two-week period. The city says it will investigate if a formal grievance is filed.

A group of Torrance bus drivers is upset over what it calls the racially motivated firings of eight transit workers.

The drivers have been meeting with transit officials to discuss the firings and what they say is a failure to carry out the city’s affirmative action plan. In addition, 30 drivers signed a petition protesting the termination of probationary driver Wanda Jackson, the most recently fired employee.

City Manager LeRoy Jackson said no formal grievances have been filed by drivers alleging discrimination. If complaints are made, he said, the city will investigate.

The drivers said they thought that all of the fired workers were probationary employees.

“We go through probationary and temporary employees fairly quickly in that division,” Jackson said, adding that tardiness and accidents are often factors in decisions to terminate drivers.

According to the employees, the firings included the terminations of six black workers during a two-week period in August and September, a charge city officials said they could not verify Friday.

The terminations came on the heels of earlier firings of a black and a Latino driver, said driver Ajaye Cortado, who is helping to organize the protest.

“They hire and fire people at will,” Cortado said.

Cortado charged that transit managers have reduced the hours of employees who have spoken out against the firings and other practices, such as selectively assigning drivers to poorly functioning buses.

Wanda Jackson, 29, said her problems with the department began after she was beaten and robbed in April by two female gang members while on the job. The suspects were arrested, and one was later convicted and placed on probation.

However, Jackson said the suspects continued to ride her bus and she feared for her safety. She said she requested an alternate route but was denied. Jackson said she complained about that and other incidents to the Civil Service Commission in July and was fired this month.

“They gave me no notice, no warning,” said Jackson, 29, who lives in Inglewood. She said she thinks she was discriminated against because she is black.

The former driver said she has not been able to find other work and is not eligible for unemployment benefits because she was fired.

“It’s been real difficult,” Jackson said. “I’ve been looking and looking, and there’s nothing out there.”