LAWSUITS NEWS & LEGAL INFORMATION
Arkansas Nucor Plant Guilty of a Racially Hostile Work Environment
This is a settlement for the Employment lawsuit.
Birmingham, AB: The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas has ruled in favor of six plaintiffs in a race
discrimination case against Nucor Corp.'s steel plant in Blytheville, AK.
The rural, twelve-person jury (11 white, 1 black) unanimously determined that the Charlotte, N.C.-based company is guilty of racial hostility against black employees. The jury found Nucor guilty of supervisor racial hostility and co-worker racial hostility at its Blytheville, Arkansas plant based, in part, on the acts of Dan DiMicco, who is currently the CEO of Nucor. DiMicco was the General Manager of the Blytheville plant at the time that many of the racial offenses occurred. The six plaintiffs were each granted $100,000 in compensatory damages and $100,000 in punitive damages, for a total of $1.2 Million.
Racial acts presented as evidence included lynching reenactments, racial slurs broadcasted over the plant's radio system, portrayals of black employees as monkeys, and a variety of other racial insults directed at African-American employees. Nucor also sold, in its own company store, items bearing confederate flags and the Nucor logo.
The Court noted that "white employees burned a cross in the roll mill department and covered their heads with hoods", a supervisor hung "a chicken with a hangman's noose... in another black employees workstation", and "repeated racial slurs, nooses and similar items hung in the roll mill department, and racially offensive graffiti on bathroom walls."
This is the second time in 2009 that a federal court has confirmed a pattern of racial hostility against African-Americans employees at Nucor's plants.
Published on Nov-3-09
The rural, twelve-person jury (11 white, 1 black) unanimously determined that the Charlotte, N.C.-based company is guilty of racial hostility against black employees. The jury found Nucor guilty of supervisor racial hostility and co-worker racial hostility at its Blytheville, Arkansas plant based, in part, on the acts of Dan DiMicco, who is currently the CEO of Nucor. DiMicco was the General Manager of the Blytheville plant at the time that many of the racial offenses occurred. The six plaintiffs were each granted $100,000 in compensatory damages and $100,000 in punitive damages, for a total of $1.2 Million.
Racial acts presented as evidence included lynching reenactments, racial slurs broadcasted over the plant's radio system, portrayals of black employees as monkeys, and a variety of other racial insults directed at African-American employees. Nucor also sold, in its own company store, items bearing confederate flags and the Nucor logo.
The Court noted that "white employees burned a cross in the roll mill department and covered their heads with hoods", a supervisor hung "a chicken with a hangman's noose... in another black employees workstation", and "repeated racial slurs, nooses and similar items hung in the roll mill department, and racially offensive graffiti on bathroom walls."
This is the second time in 2009 that a federal court has confirmed a pattern of racial hostility against African-Americans employees at Nucor's plants.
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