Opinion ID: 766145
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Racist Graffiti

Text: 7 Jackson regularly saw graffiti in the women's rest room depicting a male and a female and accompanied by comments comparing the penis sizes of white and black males, and learned of graffiti in the men's rest room depicting lynchings accompanied by the phrase, KKK is back. (J.A. at 158.) Although it bothered her, Jackson did not report the graffiti to management. For at least two years, Jackson, and several other African-American employees, also saw graffiti on a door at the west end of the plant that said, Blacks out back. (J.A. at 489, 1972.) While Jackson did not work in the west end of the plant, she passed through the area regularly during the summertime so that she could eat her lunch on the benches located outside that area of the plant. Although the graffiti disturbed her, Jackson again did not complain to management because she felt it was common practice to see things of this nature, or to have incidences occur that I felt were racist. (J.A. at 1974.) 8 While Jackson did not report to management the racial graffiti she witnessed, several other African-American employees at the plant did. Among them was Wardlaw, who wrote a memorandum to Quanex management informing them that degrading racial slurs and graffiti had been used directly and indirectly towards people of color and minorities in the plant. (J.A. at 1320.) In 1988, Thomas Miller witnessed graffiti in the seam grinding area that depicted the lynching of African-American men, and although he reported the matter to personnel, nothing was done about the incident. Bernard Crittenden witnessed graffiti in all of the men's bathrooms in the plant on twenty-five to thirty occasions, and observed that supervisory foreman regularly used the bathrooms and were aware of the graffiti. Although he reported the graffiti to management on two occasions, management, while promising to take care of the problem, did not do so immediately or did not do so at all. Crittenden also once found the locker of Thomas Miller defaced with racial graffiti. Frank Ferguson, who worked as a general foreman and superintendent of the hot mill and finish and packing divisions at Quanex from 1981 to 1991, and served as manager of Human Resources from 1991 and 1993, held responsibility for equal employment opportunity and affirmative action issues in the areas he supervised, and regularly saw racial graffiti in the plant. When Thomas Miller reported further racial graffiti, including the phrases KKK is back and Tom Miller, Number One Nigger, Ferguson's response was [y]ou know where we are and you know what's going on. (J.A. at 760-61.)3. Conduct 9 Workers at Quanex frequently and freely engaged in offensive conduct that was directed at African-American employees. On December 8, 1987, a group of Caucasian workers confronted Foster Benson, an African American newly hired by Quanex in 1987, accusing him of stealing $30 from and of making sexual comments towards a Caucasian female employee, and called him a nigger and a motherfucker. (J.A. at 1219-20.) Benson reported this threatening incident to several foremen and to Prescott Crisler, then director of personnel at Quanex. On December 15, 1987, as Benson was leaving around 12:30 a.m., a pickup truck blocked the road, and several cars pulled up. A Caucasian man unknown to Benson came over to his car and told him, Nigger, we want you to quit your job and not go to Proud Lake [Benson's residence]. (J.A. at 755, 1241.) 10 Benson reported the matter to the police and to Crisler, who advised him not to tell anyone about it. Crisler told Benson that there were organized groups of dangerous rednecks in the plant who did not like African Americans. (J.A. at 1272.) Although Crisler promised to show Benson photographs of Quanex employees so that he could make identifications, neither Crisler nor any other member of the personnel department did so. Benson later learned from Crisler and a supervisor known to him as Leroy that a group of employees had threatened Benson in retaliation for the firing of a white employee that had resulted in part from the complaints of an African-American woman. Benson voluntarily left his employment at Quanex on February 16, 1988, telling Sandy Hickman, the new director of personnel, that he was leaving because he was not satisfied with Quanex's investigation into the threats he experienced. 11 On June 7, 1991, Thomas Miller arrived at work to find his work shirt hanging on the outside of his locker with the words Nigger Sucker written over his name. He complained to Ferguson, who took pictures of the shirt and reported the matter to the general manager and to the union president. Ferguson conducted some investigation but never determined who had defaced the shirt. Eventually, Quanex published a general memorandum throughout the building saying Quanex would not tolerate racial harassment. On October 19, 1994, when Edward Copeland arrived at work, he discovered a crushed salamander on his machine. He interpreted the salamander as a death threat, and reported it to management. In the week following this incident, Copeland found several graffiti drawings around his machine, including a caricature of an African-American man kissing a rump. During that week, employees hung a Black O' Lantern and a Sambo drawing of an African- American man near Copeland's machine. Jackson saw graffiti referring to the incident in the west end of the plant, including a picture of a dead salamander being hung, a profile of what, to some, appeared to be an African-American man kissing the salamander, and language referring to lily ass kissing. Jackson and Thomas Miller painted over that graffiti. Afterwards, someone wrote a comment on the painted area to the effect of look, they didn't finish it again or a job not finished again. (J.A. at 2253.) Upon learning of the salamander graffiti, Ferguson believed it was racially motivated. He learned that [t]here was an artist in the west end. Everybody knows that person as an artist, and that's the person who was doing the graffiti. (J.A. at 2192.) Ferguson did not ask for the name of that employee, and made no effort to discover the identity of that employee. 12 African-American employees at Quanex also found that their supervisors and co-workers treated them differently from Caucasian employees when it came to enforcement of company rules. In 1988, a Caucasian employee would not train Lloyd Clayton properly for his job in the hot mill, resulting in his disqualification for that job. Clayton learned from another Caucasianemployee that the hot mill department did not want blacks, and that everyone there knew he would be disqualified even before he started the job. When Clayton worked in 1989 and 1990 as a tub cleaner, Dwight Miller wrote him up for leaving hoses unwrapped, although it was common practice to leave hoses unwrapped. Similarly, Don McComb found that Dwight Miller would ask only McComb why he was not wearing his hard hat, when several Caucasian employees would walk into work without their hard hats on, and noticed that Leroy Shoaff would order only McComb and none of the other employees to begin work. Shoaff and Dwight Miller also disciplined McComb for being out of his work area when he was in the bath house for fifteen minutes speaking to Quanex personnel about his uniform, although other Caucasian employees were in the bath house and out of their work areas at the time. The discipline was later withdrawn. 13 This difference in treatment extended to the on-the-job training and opportunities for advancement the African-American employees at Quanex received. While working in the electrical shop in 1990, Bernard Crittenden discovered that some Caucasian electricians would refuse to work with or train him, and that when supervisors had an issue to discuss with workers, they would address their comments only to the Caucasian workers by standing with their backs to the African-American employees. Although he complained to Mark Andrews, his supervisor, Andrews told him there was nothing he could do about it. Darlene Solomon told Jackson that she felt she was not getting as much work and thus as much money as her Caucasian counterparts, and that when she worked as a sweeper on the shop floor, employees would deliberately throw trash on the floor. Solomon also observed that Caucasian employees had refused to train or had improperly trained her on the crane and furnace jobs and on the marker machine. In 1994, when Solomon and Edward Copeland began work as crane operators in the west end of the plant, they discovered that they were the only operators who were not being loaded with stock. Despite complaints from Solomon and Copeland, the company took no action against the employees who had refused to load the machines of Solomon and Copeland. 14 After hearing rumors that Dwight Miller had said that no nigger is going to bump a white woman when he got a tub cleaner job, Clayton discovered that unknown persons were leaving the acid valves in his work area open, thereby creating a safety hazard. Although Clayton repeatedly reported the problem to management, the acid valves problem stopped only after he complained to union representatives. Clayton also frequently received notes from Caucasian tub cleaner Ellen Forsythe telling him to do her work. Clayton informed her he would not do her work and informed management of the notes she had left him. In response, Forsythe forged a note from Clayton to her calling her a white bitch. Clayton showed the forgery to supervisor Larry Samms, who agreed that it was not in Clayton's handwriting, but took no action against Forsythe. 15 Jackson faced similar problems when she received the tub cleaner position in 1992 after bidding for the job against Donnie Stone, a Caucasian worker. After she had been on the job for one month, Jackson noticed that someone was tampering with the acid valves after she had opened them to desired flow levels. Jackson feared that if the valves were left open, they would release improper levels of acid and create a corresponding safety hazard, and she believed Quanex would then blame and disqualify her from the job. She reported the problem to her supervisor, Larry Ledbetter, who built a box around the valves, locked the box, kept a key and gave one key to Jackson. However, someone kept cutting the lock off and breaking into the box to tamper with the valves, andultimately, Ledbetter stopped repairing the box. As a result, as she cleaned tubs, Jackson had to continuously check the valves to be sure that they had not been reset. Although most tub cleaners had helpers, despite her complaints Jackson did not receive a helper for at least one year. 16 On November 5, 1994, Quanex assigned Jackson to work with Donnie Stone. During an argument, Stone called Jackson a nigger bitch and physically assaulted her. (J.A. at 1840.) Jackson reported the incident to Ledbetter and to Ferguson. Although management officials scheduled a meeting on the matter, they conferred beforehand and determined that regardless of fault, they would require Jackson and Stone to apologize or to accept suspension. At the meeting, Jackson and Stone were told either to apologize to one another or to take a three-day suspension. When Jackson refused to apologize and accepted a three-day suspension, Stone told her to shut up. (J.A. at 1847.) Jackson ultimately grieved the incident through the process set forth in her collective bargaining agreement, and received reimbursement for the three days of lost pay. Stone also won a grievance and recovered his three days of lost pay through arbitration. On November 16, 1994, partly in response, Quanex again posted a general bulletin stating that the company prohibited racial and sexual harassment. Because Jackson feared Stone, Ledbetter assigned another tub cleaner to work in the area where Stone worked. After this incident, Quanex no longer permitted Jackson to work overtime hours, even though there was ample work to be done. Although Jackson complained to Ledbetter, he told her there was nothing he could do about it. 17 After Jackson returned from her three-day suspension, on December 2, 1994, Stone and Sue Knerr reported her to management for taking pictures in the plant in violation of a Quanex rule. Quanex management officials Frank Ferguson and Terry Youngerman, Manager of Human Resources, met with Jackson to inquire whether she had a camera and was taking pictures inside the plant. Jackson told them she did not have a camera and was not taking pictures. Although the officials told Jackson she would be under investigation, Quanex ultimately did not discipline Jackson. Jackson later learned that during the investigation Stone told management she had a black camera while Knerr told management she had a white camera, and that management had deemed their report less than credible because their descriptions of the camera were contradictory. Quanex did not discipline Stone or Knerr in connection with this incident. 18 On December 5, 1994, Jackson took a leave of absence from Quanex because she was suffering from insomnia and nightmares about Donnie Stone, and because she began thinking about hurting him. She sought treatment from Susan Feuer, a psychotherapist with the Department of Psychiatry at Henry Ford Hospital. Her own physician, Dr. Terrio, prescribed anti-depressants to her. After she left Dr. Feuer's care, Jackson underwent psychological testing with Dr. Michael Abramsky. Dr. Abramsky certified that while Jackson could work, she could not return to work at Quanex. As word of Jackson's leave spread at Quanex, Donnie Stone arrived at work on December 8, 1994 wearing a hard hat with a swastika on it. Ferguson reported this to Lasker, who suggested that they get Denzil Hatton, the union president, and go to speak with Stone. Hatton spoke with Stone and asked him not to wear the swastika. Ferguson later told Youngerman that the company, rather than the union, should have acted in the matter, by going on record against swastikas in the plant. Although Ferguson expressed his concern that we had incidents going on in the mill; the salamander, the graffiti. It seemed to me to be escalating. Like I say, the graffiti, I didn't think just doing a piece of paper or having a meeting with a select few was solving the problem.We needed to somehow make a firm stand or something more positive, Youngerman had no response. (J.A. at 292-93.)