Dear Editor of the Sacramento Bee.

Workplace: October 10, 2005, Employers warned to be alert to age bias. Well maybe Akron, Ohio finally got it right!

Age was a factor with Kaiser and Local 250 HCW because the older employees earned the most and had the best of medical and retirement benefits. Local 250 attorney William Sokol stated in federal court " It was because Kaiser downsized", so reverse seniority was never applied. Kaiser today, is worth 25 billion dollars above and beyond initial costs. Part of these billions was made on injuring their workers and not giving them any benefits.

No California legislator, agency, or court recognized our discrimnation claims. Kaiser, the union and the state allowed us older workers, female, black, and union members to be permanently disabled with no benefits. As Patrick Glenn, a Kaiser lawyer, so succinctly stated in federal court in 1996, "It's done in unions across the United States!"

It was a criminally premeditated act for Kaiser's owners, it's doctors to increase their pensions . Local 250 HCW and California aided and abetted in this inhumane crime.

Dina Padilla