Two current and one former employee who have reviewed the computer records of two large advertising accounts--an appliance repair service account handled by Ortega and an electrical service account handled by Wheeler--say that the two businesses have in excess of $1 million in unpaid bills to U S West, but are allowed to continue advertising in the book despite company policies that should have excluded them.
Ortega and Wheeler, sources say, have continued to draw commissions on the accounts, even though the businesses have not paid for their advertising.
That is possible, they say, because the U S West Direct advertising sales computer system--called DART--is indexed by telephone numbers, not the names of businesses or advertisers.
According to current and former employees, the computer records indicate that Wheeler and Ortega have been playing a shell game with the telephone numbers under which large advertisers are listed in the system, to make it appear that they are new accounts when in fact they are old accounts with credit problems.
On computer printouts shown to New Times, the lines where the names of advertisers responsible for some of the accounts should be listed are blank. This masks the identity of nonpaying advertisers, workers say. It is against company policy to leave those lines blank.
"Phil Wheeler had an account that owed us millions. Millions," says an employee who has reviewed--and helped spirit from the building--printouts of company accounting and credit records. "It was approved to go in the book. Karen or Phil can do anything. I have seen it a hundred times over."
Ortega would not discuss the allegations. Wheeler declined to comment.
Duane Beeson, the IBEW's San Francisco attorney, said the union is fully prepared to defend its officers against any of the allegations and confident that it will be cleared.
Across the Valley, current and former U S West Direct employees do not echo Beeson's confidence. They say they are laying low and waiting for their day in court, when they can present their evidence against Ortega and the union. That day may come at the NLRB hearing, or in a later civil lawsuit.
Ortega says she is not afraid of the allegations against her. "I think that our record speaks for itself," she says of herself and other union officers. "We do this because we love it. I have always been a union advocate. I just believe in unions. I have a philosophy that there isn't a company in the world that has a union that didn't at one time deserve it. Our team shares that philosophy. We conduct ourselves with integrity and honesty, and I'm very very proud of our team."
Last month, the company announced this year's winners of the Circle of Excellenece Awards. Ortega, and Wheeler, will be attending again. But unlike years past, employees say, the company decided not to post the standings that show each salesperson's final figures.
