According to an EEOC Charge of Discrimination filed December 19, 2023 (from which the following is taken), a Foreman, and then a coworker, enacted “mock” lynchings. Within days of “Jim” filing his complaint with the EEOC, Ironworks fired him—after giving him steady raises for two years.
In early May 2023, Jim asked his Foreman a question. As the Foreman walked away, he said “Stupid ass n*gger.”
On May 19, 2023, his manager told him “I love you.” Jim responded, “I’m not gay.” Later that day, his manager smacked him on his rear. Jim felt the manager was trying to emasculate him because Jim was African American. Jim never saw his manager make a similar comment to a white worker or touch his buttocks.
On August 31, the Foreman took a chain that was attached to a crane, put a portion around his own neck and jerked it as if reenacting a lynching.
The Construction Manager witnessed this but took no action, other than laughing.
On or about September 15, 2023, Jim told his manager to review security footage from August 31, giving him the time and location.
Two days later, Jim explained the mock lynching in detail to Mike Gayda, the owner, after asking him in writing to review video.
On September 19, 2023, his manager told him that we “kind of have a witness,” and admitted that the Foreman “made an inappropriate comment or did something inappropriate.”
A week after reporting the lynching incident to Mike Gayda, a coworker gestured with his hand in the air, yanking his own arm as if to show a noose being pulled.
The EEOC served Jim’s Charge of Discrimination on Ironworks on December 20, 2023. Jim filed a second EEOC Charge (after he was fired), from which the following is taken.
After receiving the EEOC Charge, his supervisor began demanding Jim provide the number of flanges used, although the supervisor had the number on a piece of paper. At a morning meeting in which the supervisor was demanding the flange count, Jim finally responded, “Man, you’re stressing me out by the way you keep asking me about the flange count that you’ve seen with your own eyes, that I keep track of and send to you daily.”
The Foreman, who did not need to be involved in the discussion, came toward Jim and yelled, “You’re stressing US out,” which Jim understood as a response to the EEOC Charge describing the Foreman’s frightening racist threat and language. Although Jim was told he could go home early or continue working that day, and although he did work the rest of the day, he was subsequently told there would be an investigation. When Jim returned to work after the holidays, only a week after Ironworks received Jim’s second EEOC Charge, it fired him, which he alleges in his Charge was in retaliation for his legally-protected conduct of complaining of racial harassment to the EEOC.
As both Charges allege, Ironwork violated the law, caused Jim emotional and physical distress, and economic harm.
Threat of lynching is the most severe threat of racial violence. Such threats have not been a legal condition of employment since the Civil War.
Anyone with information about this matter is welcome to contact our office at attorney@friedmanhouldingllp.com, 888-369-1119 x1, or fill out a contact form on our website.
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