Opinion ID: 2994594
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Age-Related Statements

Text: The principal theories on which both sets of plaintiffs rely relate to the way in which the lay-offs were orchestrated and the interrelation between those selected for termination and their age and pension status (which the plaintiffs assert created a strong financial incentive to terminate people below the chronological age thresholds set by the Plan). In addition, the plaintiffs point to other direct or circumstantial evidence that they believe reveals that age bias lay behind the two companies’ decisions. A sample of these statements includes the following: Ameritech’s president, William Weiss, called for broad changes to reinvigorate the company, and another member of senior management commented that the company needed to be ventilated. Thomas Reiman, Indiana Bell’s president, stated during his first videotaped conference as president: The business will absolutely dry up and die if we don’t have a continued influx of new young crazy people in our business. And we’re going to find a way to do that. Robert Knowling, upon becoming general manager of one of Indiana Bell’s business customer support groups at age 36, commented that he was aghast when he came into the department and found 12 white middle-aged managers working for him. Ranking documents that were not destroyed described one 59-year-old employee as retired in place and a 61-year-old employee as old school. Jim Goetz (age 35), who served as a coordinator during the 1992 selection process for ASI, discussed the reorganization in a company video made on September 10, 1993. Stressing the fact that the company would be hiring significant numbers of people from the outside despite the recent terminations, Goetz said some of this [new hiring] you’ll see are just analysts, entry- level analyst jobs where we want to get back and start bringing in some folks that are under 45 years old. Later, apparently having been prodded by a colleague, Goetz attempted to clarify that remark by saying, My comment earlier regarding looking for people under 45, all I meant is that we want to be open to hiring people from colleges again, that’s all I mean.