This case is about workplace racial and sexual harassment. In March 1998, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) brought this suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. They sued Foster Wheeler Constructors, Inc. (FWCI) and Local Union 597 Pipefitters Association (the Union) under 28 U.S.C. § 1331. The EEOC alleged that construction workers were subjected to racial and sexual harassment in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The harassment included widespread racist and sexist graffiti in portable toilets at work sites, which the EEOC alleged created a hostile work environment for women and black workers at the job sites. They sought injunctive relief and compensatory and punitive damages.
On May 5, 1998 an individual plaintiff likewise brought suit,
Ferguson v. Pipefitters Ass'n, No. 1:98-cv-03217, against the Union alleging racial harassment, and, as his claims were substantially the same as the EEOC’s, his case was subsequently consolidated with this case on July 17, 1998. Additionally, on June 17, 1998, that same individual plaintiff’s motion to intervene was granted against both defendants, the Union and the FWCI.
On July 6, 1999, Judge David H. Coar granted summary judgment for certain corporate entities related to FWCI and terminated them as parties in this suit. However, on July 12, 1999, Judge Coar denied FWCI's motion for summary judgment. Subsequently, FWCI settled with the plaintiffs on January 6, 2000. The Consent Decree awarded $1.325 million to be paid to approximately 100 former black and/or female employees, and the FWCI further agreed to implement equal opportunity training for its employees.
The Union pressed on with its case, and on September 13-20, 1999, a bench trial was held. In March 2002, Judge Coar entered judgment for the plaintiffs, and held that the Union's failure to implement any policy against racial harassment warranted punitive damages and injunctive relief. Judge Coar awarded compensatory damages to the EEOC on behalf of eight black workers totaling $105,000, punitive damages of $50,000, and an injunction against "permitting a hostile work environment based on race to exist for its members at any job site." 2002 WL 976618.
However, the Union appealed on April 26, 2002, and on July 1, 2003, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the Union did not have an affirmative duty to prevent racial harassment or other forms of unlawful discrimination in the workplace: “if [the Union] merely fails to effectuate changes in the workplace…the Union is not guilty of discrimination, though the company is.” 334 F.3d 656.
The plaintiffs petition for a rehearing en banc, which was denied on September 1, 2004. Judge Coar entered judgment for the Union on September 9, 2004. The case is now closed.
Jason Chester - 08/07/2008
Madeline Buday - 04/07/2021
compress summary
