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The following story is true and it also tells you a little of the business practices of at least one employer in Washington County, Oregon.

A couple of years or so ago I got a job working at Stream International in Beaverton, Oregon. Shortly after being hired my ex-in-laws called up some people in management and told them I was gay and had the AIDS virus. (By the way, I'm not gay and I don't have the AIDS virus.) This caused a couple of supervisors to come to me and tell me the computer I was working on wasn't a good computer and that a computer that was waaaaaay away from everyone was the computer for me. They also said really stupid things like, "Don't feel bad, these computers in this area don't work for Mexicans, either."

Stream International came up with some outrageous personnel policies that were designed with one thing in mind. To get me to quit so the managers and my co-workers wouldn't be worried about me giving them AIDS. On a daily basis I was harassed and insulted. I was kept out of necessary training, etc.

Various persons in management also came up with a lot of outrageous and illegal schemes to get me to quit or to get me fired. One of their little schemes went like this:

Many times I was scheduled to begin work at 6 A.M. I would arrive before 6 A.M. to get everything prepared so I would be able to start working at 6. Then when I went to the computer I was assigned to on any particular day the computer would not be ready or it would be down. Only the IT people could get it back up because they had administrative rights and I didn't. The disabling of the computer I was to work on was, of course, done on purpose. Usually about an hour later, after I complained, the IT people would get the computer working or I would be assigned to another computer.

Sometime during the day (and this happened on a lot of days) somebody in management would come to me and tell me that I didn't start on time, or I was late for work, or something similar, and that I would be terminated.

Another ploy that was used was for somebody in management to change my weekly work schedule on my off days in order to try and get me fired for not showing up for work at my scheduled time. It got so bad that sometimes on my day off I would go into work just to check if my work schedule had been secretly changed. There will be more to come, including the strange postings on the bulletin boards informing my co-workers about my alleged medical conditions.

After about a year of working there I was told I was being laid off because my job was being transferred to Canada. I applied for unemployment insurance at the Oregon Employment Department. When the person handling my claim called up Stream International a couple of the supervisors said I had been fired because I didn't show up for work. Pretty sleazy, huh? I guess lying in order to avoid paying unemployment benefits is a normal business practice for Stream International. Anyway my claim was turned down.

I then filed an appeal. Fifteen minutes before the appeal was to be heard somebody at the Oregon Employment Department called my residence to inform me my appeal was to be heard. I wasn't around but a roommate took the call and told me about the call later. I ended up not getting unemployment payments.

The reason I kept working there despite the abuse was because my paycheck was going to the mother of my two daughters and my two daughters.