Tool: Chip Chermak of the NLRB

Last year, I had to go to the NLRB in Minneapolis to do an affidavit. The investigator taking my affidavit was named Chip Chermak. Chip lazily and sluggishly typed what I was saying for several hours, before we took a lunch break. I finished lunch before him, and waited in the lobby of the NLRB for his return. While I was sitting in the lobby, I overheard two men walking down the hall of the federal building, giddily laughing like school boys. As they approached the NLRB office, one man said to the other,

"What tools does she use?"

The other one replied that he didn't know, and said it in a tone of perverse curiosity. As the two men walked through the lobby, I saw that they worked for the NLRB. One was my investigator Chip Chermak, and the other was an NLRB worker named Joseph Borong. Joseph looked at my legs folded as I sat in the chair, and sneered at me. Chip chuckled condescendingly, and ushered me back into his office so that I could continue the affidavit.

Once in his office, I asked him why he and his coworker were laughing about "tools" together. Chip confirmed that they were laughing about the tools question on the Economic Realities test, in relation to my affidavit. He told me that since Joseph Borong is an attorney, it wasn't a big deal for him to know about my affidavit, even as they were strutting down the halls of the federal building loudly joking about it. I explained to Chip that my case was a serious thing, to be treated with respect and dignity. I explained to Chip that while reporting a strip club to the NLRB was uncommon, that doesn't mean I don't deserve any less respect. Chip continued to chuckle at me, and tell me that most of the time, tools reported to the NLRB included things like saws or hammers. Since Chip was too emotionally undeveloped, misogynist and disrespectful to understand my tools were not perverse or funny objects, I explained to him that the tools in clubs include the stage, couches, chairs, audio equipment, lighting and building-- just to name a few.

Chip's typing of my affidavit was extremely sloppy and full of typos, so I had to return for several days to complete it. He also let me take it home to correct, which I wasn't supposed to do. Eventually, I told Chip's boss about his misogynist treatment of my job and affidavit, and my case was assigned to a different investigator. Chip's boss apologized for his behavior, while also telling me that all of the investigators take their jobs seriously.

One blurb that multiple workers at the NLRB have recited to me is that all of their investigators take their jobs seriously and treat cases with respect. It's upsetting to be gas lit like that, because it wasn't true with Chip Chermak. It is my hope that tax payers who support the NLRB will one day remove Chip Chermak from his position as investigator, by getting him fired.