Jermaine Alexander, 14, was riding a friend’s dirt bike, a Honda CR500, in the city’s Frankford section on March 13. At the intersection of the 3700 block of Frankford Avenue and the 2000 block of Butler Street, Alexander, who was operating the vehicle at a high rate of speed, was heading southbound down Frankford Avenue. As he did, he slammed into a southbound 2005 Kia Sportage, driven by Mitchell Butler, who, according to the official accident reports, was turning right, to head eastbound onto Butler Street. The collision was horrendous — the bike was split in two and Alexander’s body was thrown into the air. He landed onto the windshield of the Sportage and was pronounced dead by responding medics.
Those are the basic facts and are not in dispute.

What is in dispute is what precipitated the fatal crash. Was Alexander just being a reckless dirt bike rider, or was he being chased by someone? At least four different witnesses said he was being pursued by a blue minivan and possibly by police officers. That allegation was denied by the Philadelphia Police Department in other reports — but the incident remains under investigation. Initially, police thought the accident was a hit and run and that the driver of the blue minivan left the scene, but that hasn’t yet been confirmed. Alexander’s mother, Sarina Howard Witherspoon, and her attorney, Scott Portner, of the firm of Freedman and Lorry, P.C., have a lot of questions.

“At first, police said they were going to look for the blue minivan, but later said there was no minivan. I don’t know, I’m going by what the police said,” Witherspoon said. She acknowledged that she knew dirt bikes are illegal. She also confirmed that at one time Alexander owned two of them — one that was given to him that was broken and then repaired, and one she purchased for him with the stipulation that he only ride in different parks and a wide area near Philadelphia International Airport.

“He was only supposed to ride off the streets,” she said. “The police took the first bike. I constantly told him they were dangerous, but after he left my eyesight, once he was around the corner, older guys who knew he could ride, would lend him their bikes. On January 21 the cops hit him while he was riding. A police car hit the back tire and he fell. They ran his name and found he had no record, so they gave him traffic tickets. After that I told him not to get on any bikes but I know he did; I caught him doing it and would make him get off. This isn’t about money — money isn’t going to bring my son back. I want to know what really happened, and was someone chasing my son? The police say they don’t chase the dirt bikes — but they do.”

Witherspoon said that on March 13, Alexander had gotten an early dismissal from Hardin Middle School, and she wanted to know if he was going out. He told her that he was going to wash his clothes and clean his room.

Read More at phillytrib.com.

Local 1637, like all of the labor organizations F&L represent, desires to have productive and mutually respectful relationships with employers with whom it has collective bargaining agreements. Unfortunately, in some instances establishing this status requires the union to demonstrate its willingness to aggressively pursue arbitrations and litigation. That has been the case with one of Local 1637’s employers the Philadelphia Parking Authority.

Last year two arbitrations involving termination actions were successfully litigated, resulting in awards requiring the employer to reinstate the grievants and pay them substantial back pay, nearly $100,000. The Authority has challenged one of the awards. According to Goldstein, the employer’s appeal has no merit and the back pay meter is still running.

Our experience at F&L is that some employers are slow learners, but eventually they come around. A classic example is F&L’s representation of the Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia, CWA Local 38010. When F&L was retained by the Guild it successfully litigated 10 consecutive arbitrations involving both contractual issues and disciplines that generated hundreds of thousands of dollars of back pay awards for individuals and classes of employees before the employer figured out that instead of fighting the Guild cooperating would be more productive and far less expensive. Now the Guild and the employer enjoy a healthy and productive relationship and have avoided arbitration for more than two years,

Hopefully, the Parking Authority will learn that fighting Local 1637 is not in its best interests, or in the best interests of its employees.