Opinion ID: 347588
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: facts

Text: A. Introduction 5 Stockham is engaged in the manufacture of cast iron valves; malleable fittings; bronze, iron and steel valves; and other industrial valves and fittings at its facilities in Birmingham, Alabama. The product diversity and overall capacity of the company have gradually increased since Stockham was founded in 1903. By 1973 Stockham's work force in Birmingham was comprised of more than two thousand employees. Although the district court found that (h) istorically, approximately two-thirds of Stockham's employees have been black, 394 F.Supp. at 443, the record reveals that the two-thirds figure applies to production and maintenance workers during the years from 1966 to 1973. Approximately 56 percent of the entire work force at Stockham's Birmingham facility was black during that same period, a figure larger than the percentage of blacks in the Birmingham area. 6 The district court found that Stockham has a multi-plant complex in Birmingham that is, in effect, six plants in one, comprised of a cast iron fittings plant, a malleable iron fittings plant, a bronze valve plant, an iron valve plant, a steel valve plant, and a butterfly valve plant. That finding is overstated, for at least four of the twenty-two seniority departments at Stockham, valve machining and assembly, electrical, machine shop, and construction, extend over all or virtually all of the plants. 7 The defendant unions, the Steelworkers and its Local, have been the bargaining unit representatives for the production and maintenance hourly employees at Stockham since 1944. A majority of the local union's members have been black since World War II, and a majority of the members of the Local's grievance committee and of its officers have been black since 1967. Plaintiffs James and Winston have been officers of the Local and participated in collective bargaining negotiations. The Steelworkers' staff representative who has aided the Local in contract negotiations is black. 8 All the plaintiffs were black hourly employees of Stockham. Patrick James, a high school graduate and a graduate of Booker T. Washington Business College, was hired as a laborer at Stockham in 1950 and twenty-four years later at the time of trial was still working in that capacity. Howard Harville was hired in 1946 and worked as an arbor molder in the grey foundry until 1970 when he retired on a medical disability. Louis Winston was hired as a laborer for the galvanizing department in 1964, was transferred to the electrical department as a laborer in 1965, and in 1971 became one of the first blacks enrolled in the apprenticeship program. B. Organization 1. Departments 9 By agreement with the Local, Stockham has maintained a formal departmental seniority system since 1949. There are twenty-two seniority departments. The foundry departments produce the basic materials and molds for Stockham's products (e. g. grey iron foundry, bronze foundry, and malleable foundry); other departments assemble, finish, and machine products (e. g. tapping room and valve machining and assembly); and another group of departments perform maintenance functions (e. g. electrical shop, machine shop, valve tool room, and construction). 10 Since 1965 the company has regularly employed approximately two hundred office and clerical personnel. In addition, the work force includes twenty-two non-union, salaried timekeepers. As of June 1973, there were also thirty-two plant guards. The Stockham sales department in Birmingham included twenty-two employees at the time of trial. At that time a total of forty-six salesmen were employed by Stockham throughout the country. 2. Wage Determinants 11 Within each seniority department bargaining unit jobs are divided into twelve job classes in ascending order of hourly wage from JC 2 to JC 13. These classifications reflect the increasingly complex nature of the jobs and the level of skill necessary to perform them. An employee's job classification determines his base pay rate. Other factors such as incentive earnings and merit raises also determine actual earnings. For each job classification there are different gradations of pay for non-incentive employees. Under Stockham's incentive system employees in highly repetitive jobs can add to their base pay if their work output reaches a sufficiently high level. A direct incentive worker's earnings averages approximately twenty-five percent above his base pay rate. Indirect incentive workers provide support services to direct incentive workers and receive incentive pay based on the output of the incentive workers. Non-incentive workers advance from one grade of pay to the next within a job classification if they achieve a predetermined score under a formal merit rating system. Although incentive workers are not eligible for merit pay raises, all employees receive merit ratings from their foremen every six months. 3. Advancement and Transfers 12 The merit scores received by both incentive and non-incentive employees become part of their personnel records; such ratings constitute one of the factors considered in promotion and training selection. 4 13 Job vacancies have never been posted at Stockham and the company does not have a formal bidding system. In 1965 Stockham instituted a timely application procedure that received a formal blessing in the 1970 collective bargaining agreement. An employee may ask his supervisor to prepare an application on his behalf for any job at Stockham, whether or not a vacancy for that job exists at the time of the application. The application is considered timely regardless of when the vacancy occurs. In filling vacancies company officials are not restricted to those employees who have filed timely applications. In practice many promotion and training selections are made in favor of employees who have not filed such applications. 14 Stockham administered the Wonderlic Test (discussed later in this opinion) to job applicants and employees seeking promotions and transfers from August 1965 until April 1971. To be considered for a position an employee was required to attain the Wonderlic score designated for the job. An employee seeking a job in a new department, another department from the one in which he was working, was required to obtain the higher norm score on the test; a worker seeking promotion within his own department was eligible for the job if he achieved the lower minimum score on the test, provided that he had attained basic departmental job skills. 15 Under the seniority system at Stockham a senior employee is entitled to preference only when two or more competing workers possess the same degree of qualifications. An employee's foreman decides whether he meets this test and is entitled to promotion or training opportunities. This decision is totally within the discretion of the foreman and is not subject to review. C. Employment Practices 1. Initial Job Assignments 16 According to company officials, it has been and still is the practice at Stockham for the initial job assignments of new employees to be made by the supervisors, both superintendents and foremen, of the departments containing the vacancies. The personnel office at Stockham serves as a recruiting agency and interviews and screens job applicants. The supervisor of a department advises the personnel office of any need for additional employees, and he is informed when suitable applications are available for review. In some cases the supervisor will request a particular individual whom he knows has filed an application. In other cases the personnel office will present the supervisor with a group of applications for examination. The supervisor, either the foreman or superintendent depending on the department, makes the hiring decision, which is totally discretionary and without written guidelines. Supervisors usually accept approximately seventy-five percent of the applicants recommended by the personnel department. 2. Seniority System 17 As stated, a Stockham employee seeking a new job in his existing department or desiring to transfer to a position in another department may file a timely application. A supervisor fills the vacancy within his department from employees who have filed timely applications, other employees, and applicants from outside the company. If two Stockham applicants are about equal in qualifications, the collective bargaining agreement requires that the employee with the most departmental seniority be selected. 18 If other factors are equal, departmental seniority determines not only promotions but also lay-offs and recalls. A worker who transfers between departments is a new employee for purposes of promotion and regression in the transferee department. Before June 1970 if a worker transferred departments he immediately lost all seniority in his old department. In 1970 this requirement was modified in the collective bargaining agreement. An employee was given eighteen months after transfer to the new department to decide if he wanted to return to his old department. If within that time he decided to return, he would be permitted to reenter his old department within twenty-four months of his transfer with his accumulated seniority. The 1973 collective agreement further modified these seniority provisions. If after eighteen months an employee elected to remain in the transferee department, then he would be allowed to retain his seniority in his old department solely for lay-offs, but only until he had been in the new department as long as he had been in the old. If he was laid off during this period, he would be permitted to return to his old department with his accumulated seniority. 19 The basic features of Stockham's seniority system have remained unchanged: (1) an employee who transfers between departments forfeits his accumulated seniority at some point; (2) an employee who transfers between departments is a new employee for all promotion and regression purposes; and (3) a departmental employee has preference over employees from other departments for promotion to all vacancies within his department. 3. Craft Training 20 Craft positions, defined by the company as jobs with classifications from JC 10 through JC 13, are filled through on-the-job training and the apprenticeship program. More skilled tradesmen are trained through the apprenticeship program at Stockham than exclusively through on-the-job training. The program at Stockham involves four years and nine thousand hours of training in shops and apprentice classes. There are no formal lines of progression for the craft jobs. The craft skilled maintenance positions include millwright, electrician, carpenter, patternmaker, blacksmith, and machinist. The craft skilled production jobs include box floor molder, ductile melter, oven operator, crane operator, heat treater, and service mechanic. 21 The foreman or superintendent of the department in which a craft vacancy occurs selects a candidate for the apprenticeship program. Although timely applications are filed for openings in the apprenticeship program, the supervisor may select an employee who has not filed an application. A majority of employees selected for the program between 1965 and 1971 had not filed timely applications. Apart from several specific requirements, there are no formal guidelines for the supervisor's selection; he considers such general factors as desire and aptitude for the craft position. The foreman or superintendent recommends his candidate for the apprentice program vacancy to the apprenticeship committee. As a practical matter, the committee approves the supervisor's selection virtually automatically. 22 The specific requirements for the apprenticeship program have changed over the years. From August 1965 until April 1971, an applicant for the program was required to score at least 18 on the Wonderlic Test. Also, beginning in 1953 employees were required to achieve a passing score on the Bennett Mechanical Test. In addition to the testing requirements, in 1970 the company instituted a thirty-year maximum age limit, excluding time spent in military service, and a requirement that the applicant have a high school education or its equivalent for eligibility in the program. Before 1970 a grammar school education was required. Company officials have the discretion to waive either the age or the high school education requirement and have done so for a few individuals. 4. Supervisory Selection 23 Supervisors of the seniority departments at Stockham are selected either directly from the hourly work force without specific training or after completion of one of two training programs maintained by the company. The personnel development program (PDP), established in 1960, is designed to train the company's own employees. Before 1969 the program was informal and unstructured; only three classes were held between 1960 and 1969. There is an allocation of positions in the program among the departments at Stockham and final selection of participants is made by superintendents and foremen. There are no formal, written guidelines for the selection of employee participants in the PDP. The management training program (MTP) and its predecessor, the organizational apprentice program (OAP), were designed to train individuals with technical skills who could eventually assume positions in upper level management. The OAP was instituted in 1950 and replaced by the MTP in 1969. Under both programs Stockham recruited participants only from nearby predominantly white universities such as Auburn University, the University of Alabama, the University of Tennessee, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Samford University. 24 As for employees selected directly from the hourly work force for supervisory positions, specific training is not a prerequisite. The superintendent of a division that has a supervisory vacancy may select candidates for the position after consultation with the company's production manager. An employee may make a timely application for a supervisory position, but the overwhelming majority of the employees selected to be supervisors have never filed such an application. A majority of Stockham's foremen were promoted from the ranks of hourly workers. 25 A company official testified that the principal criterion for selecting a foreman is who is the best man for the job at the particular time?. Other considerations are the candidate's desire to be a foreman, work record, knowledge of the job, training, physical fitness, and common sense. Whether the candidate has a high school education is also considered although employees without high school educations have been selected as foremen and superintendents. There are no specific written standards for the selection of supervisors. 5. Testing Program 26 In recent years at Stockham testing has come to play an increasingly large part in the selection of individuals for initial employment, training programs, promotion, and transfers. A large-scale testing program was initiated at Stockham in August 1965. Before then only the Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Test for screening apprentice program candidates was in use. In 1965 the company instituted the Wonderlic Personnel Test to screen applicants for initial hire, promotion, and transfer. In October 1966 Stockham formally adopted dual scoring standards for transfers to the three groups of job classes. As discussed above, the minimum score for intradepartmental job candidates was set at a lower level for each group of job classes than was the score for transfers between departments. The candidates for interdepartmental transfers were required to obtain the higher norm score while the intradepartmental job candidates were eligible for consideration if they achieved the minimum score, provided that they had developed basic departmental job skills. 5 The minimum score was established by a committee composed of Stockham management personnel and the company attorney. No one in the group and no company official associated with the administration of the testing had training in the testing field. The Wonderlic Test was never validated at Stockham. In 1971, apparently as a result of the Supreme Court's decision in Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 1971, 401 U.S. 424, 91 S.Ct. 849, 28 L.Ed.2d 158, Stockham terminated its testing program. 27 In early 1973, however, the company hired Victor Tabaka, a management consultant, to develop new testing procedures for implementation at Stockham. In April 1973 Tabaka submitted his testing proposal to the company. According to Tabaka he validated the use of tests for specific jobs at Stockham by means of a concurrent criterion study. The district court found that the Tabaka tests were put into formal use at Stockham on July 17, 1973. But the company official responsible for employee testing testified that the Tabaka test had not been used in any employee selection decision at Stockham by the time of trial. He stated that the test was administered to employees only for the purpose of accumulating data. The Tabaka test was not proposed for use with supervisory, clerical, or other salaried jobs. In addition, Tabaka concluded that the test was not applicable to eighty-six additional job titles because the associated job aptitudes were not measurable by pen and pencil tests. 6