Opinion ID: 300089
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Baggage and Mail Department

Text: 22 On August 6, 1969, approximately 108 employees (seventeen white and ninetyone black) 19 performed nine different contract jobs in the Baggage and Mail Department. All were represented by the BRAC. Under the agreement between the BRAC and the Terminal, there are two classes, or groups, in the department. The jobs of General Foreman, Chief Clerk, Stenoclerk, Foreman, and Assistance Foreman have been categorized as group 1; the jobs of Porter, Loader, Tractor Driver, and Separator have been classified as group 3. The class distinction received governmental approval in General Order No. 27 discussed infra: group 1 jobs ostensibly require clerical skills, while group 3 jobs (generally laboring positions) require no particular training. 20 At least since 1962, there have been white employees in group 3 and black employees in group 1 positions. The District Court noted that at the time of trial in early 1970, three of the twenty-six group 1 employees were black, and thirteen of the 176 group 3 employees were white. Id. at 584 n. 14. 23 However, Terminal records do not disclose that any black was hired into a group 1 job in this or any other department within the BRAC's work jurisdiction; indeed, all blacks in the Baggage and Mail Department began their employment tenure in the group 3 job of Porter. Of the nine black employees in this department called as witnesses by the Government during presentation of its case, five (four of whom were hired before July 2, 1965) testified that they had not applied for any particular jobs at the Terminal. All five had, at least, graduated from high school. A sixth, who had had experience as a Mail Room Supervisor in the Air Force, applied for an equivalent position at the Terminal in 1957. Evidently Terminal officials determined that this would be the group 3 job of Mail Room Separator, rather than the group 1 position of Foreman or Assistant Foreman. Moreover, according to the witness, the Terminal's Assistant Baggage and Mail Agent stated that the Terminal did not hire Negroes for the latter jobs. (The Terminal began promoting blacks into group 1 jobs in December 1962. Since that date, three have received promotions to Assistant Foreman or Foreman on a regular basis.) All six blacks became Porters. 24 According to Terminal records, twenty-three of the twenty-eight whites working in the department as of December 1, 1969, began their employment in group 1 jobs. Of the remaining five, whose beginning jobs in the department were as group 3 Porters, four were hired after July 2, 1965. The fifth became a Porter in 1938 and advanced to Apprentice Assistant Foreman, a group 1 position, in 1939. Other than clerical aptitude, the Terminal ostensibly demands no formal educational prerequisite for group 1 jobs. 25 To rebut any inference as to racially discriminatory job assignments in this department, the Terminal presented evidence and testimory purportedly explaining the substantial concentration of blacks in group 3 mail handling positions. A Terminal witness testified that general economic conditions in the Jacksonville area are an important factor in determining the source of mail handling manpower for his department. Blacks have come to, and remained at, the Terminal because it offers better pay and job security than are otherwise available in the vicinity. Their employment applications uniformly show no educational background or prior work experience warranting employment in skilled jobs, i. e., group 1 positions. Whites who possess similar qualifications and who are hired to work as group 3 mail handlers remain only temporarily because better opportunities exist in other industries and perhaps because they do not enjoy the manual labor required in mail handling. Contributing to this unavoidable concentration of blacks in group 3 is the fact that, although both whites and blacks are hired on an approximately equal basis for the annual Christmas mail rush, only blacks apply for post-rush permanent employment as extra-board Porters, the job classification of all Christmas extra help. No one applies for a Group 3 job; they come in and say they want a job, the department head stated. However, blacks have been hired as Porters-because, as the Terminal emphatically argues, in many cases the applicant had previously worked for the Terminal in the same job for which his then current application was made. Signed employment applications in Terminal files indicate that blacks have applied for the lower paying group 3 jobs, arguably supporting the Terminal's contention that no one has taken a particular position involuntarily. Further, the Terminal avers, the Government failed to show that vacancies in group 1 have existed at any material time. 26 The Terminal also points out that it has given certain black employees mail handling work as a favor to relatives who are employees. An example is Roderick Gray, who applied at the behest of his step-father Henry Young. Young asked the Terminal management to hire Gray to help straighten him out and stated in a minor's work release that his step-son was an applicant for the job of Porter. Young's action, the Terminal concludes, manifests that Gray sought work with his step-father and of the same type as that in which he had prior experience, i. e., as a freight handler. The District Court agreed, concluding from the demeanor and testimony of the witnesses and the content of pertinent exhibits that Mr. Gray actively sought the job he received and had no qualifications for any other job. Id. at 580. As to Young, the Terminal notes that although he testified he had been assigned to the job of Porter, he also stated that he had applied for the position. 27 With respect to promotions in the department, the Government has argued that there are racially separate lines of progression. Of the seventeen whites hired before July 2, 1965, who were working in the department as of December 1, 1969, sixteen began in group 1 jobs. Depending on their entry positions, the whites have advanced from Apprentice Assistant Foreman to Assistant Foreman to Foreman and finally to General Foreman, all of which are group 1 jobs. The seventeenth white was hired as a Porter in 1938 and became an Apprentice Assistant Foreman in 1939. Conversely, all blacks have begun in the group 3 Porter job. From there they have advanced to Loader, Tractor Driver, and Separator. Since 1962 three blacks have been promoted to Assistant Foreman or Foreman. Prior to their promotions, they worked from fourteen to sixteen years in group 3 jobs. 28 Rule 4 of the agreement between the BRAC and the Terminal provides that covered employees shall be in line for promotion. Until the rule was amended on November 21, 1962, group 3 employees (all blacks) were specifically excluded from its scope of applicability. Blacks were aware that the pre-amendment rule precluded advancement in group 1 positions. 29 As we mentioned earlier, after amendment of the rule, three blacks have been given group 1 positions. The first was promoted in 1964, the second in 1966, and the third in 1967. The District Judge concluded that the pre-1962 rule 30 simply provided that seniority in Group 3 did not establish a contract right to bid and be considered for Group 1 jobs. Moreover, the record shows that the absence of such seniority rights is grounded in the functional differences between the skills (clerical as opposed to nonclerical work) which are required in jobs falling within the two groups.    More significantly, however, the record shows that it is the established practice throughout the railroad industry not to allow bidding rights to employees seeking to transfer between crafts, classes or jobs requiring unrelated skills. It is also significant that such rules apply similarly in areas where white employees hold jobs in the lower classifications.    The Government failed to prove any qualified Negro was denied advancement because of Rule 4 prior to its amendment, and it was unable to establish any racial discrimination resulting from Rule 4 prior to its amendment, and a fortiori there has been and could be no continuing racially discriminatory effect. 31 Id. at 585 (footnotes omitted). 32 On April 4, 1967, the Terminal began administering a personnel test to those seeking group 1 jobs in the department; personnel already holding group 1 positions were exempted from the examination. The Terminal's Chief Baggage and Mail Agent and his Chief Clerk developed the test along with a suggested grading scale. Currently, however, there is no minimum passing score. Moreover, there is no manual explaining administration or scoring. The District Court found that the test relates to actual job requirements and was designed by professional railroad personnel.    The record shows that it was developed to screen employees to determine who might possess the clerical qualifications necessary for Group 1 job classifications. Test scores were but one of a number of factors considered in determining which employees might be qualified for work in Group 1 jobs. Id. at 583. In making this finding, the court necessarily chose between contradictory testimony delivered by two industrial psychologists, neither of whom evidently participated in the test's development or administration. 33 The Government challenges this finding because the test allegedly has been correlated to anticipated rather than actual job performance in group 1 positions. According to the Government, this measure of validity is inadequate; and the District Court should have so found. Furthermore, the Government questions the manner in which the test has been administered, as well as the Terminal's utilization of scores in assessing promotability of blacks. 34 After the test had been developed, the Terminal, by posted notice, invited all group 3 employees interested in group 1 jobs to take it. Apparently this notice was the first ever inviting group 3 employees to apply for group 1 jobs. Group 1 positions generally involve clerical work; the initial prerequisite listed on the notice was qualified typist. Since group 3 workers were aware that the group 1 jobs of Utility Clerk, Assistant Foreman, Foreman, and General Foreman involve no, or very limited, typing, the Government concludes that group 3 employees became apprehensive concerning the notice's sincerity. 35 During April fifteen blacks holding group 3 positions took the examination. None was promoted to a group 1 job after taking the test. Between May 1967 and August 1968, at least nine group 1 jobs were filled, all by newly hired whites who had scored higher than the blacks tested. One black testified that the department head had told him he failed the test, and others stated that they had never been informed of the results. The General Baggage and Mail Agent advised group 3 Separator Henry Young to review his arithmetic. Young scored five points higher on the arithmetic part than did J. A. Boswell, a white who became a Utility Clerk one month after Young took the test. Boswell, however, scored ten points more than Young on the whole test. Moreover, he entered the department with substantial clerical experience that Young did not possess. 36 Several Terminal officials responded to the Government's contentions by pointing out that the test was not the sole criterion for group 1 work; it has been given only to ascertain an individual's ability to read, write, and do basic arithmetic. For instance, Roger Stamper, a black group 3 employee, scored forty-nine on the test during his group 1 probationary period. Nevertheless, the department head concluded for other reasons that Stamper would be a satisfactory Assistant Foreman, and Stamper subsequently acquired regular group 1 status. To validate the test by comparison with actual job performance would allegedly have been impractical: the Terminal would have become an experimental station for employees that might not have the ability to do the work. Finally, the Terminal asserts that group 3 employees are not required to take the test and pass, or otherwise achieve an acceptable score, to hold a group 1 job. Thus the test cannot be a term or condition of employment imposed on blacks but not on their white contemporaries. 37