Organizational Responsibility for Workplace Racial and Sexual Harassment: The Stories of One Company's Workers

Authors

Cheryl L. Wade, St. John's University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Hofstra Law Review

Publication Date

2014

Volume

43

First Page

229

Abstract

(Excerpt)

I begin this Article with the testimony of an African-American man who, along with hundreds of African-American coworkers, brought a race discrimination suit against an industrial construction and fabrication limited liability company ("LLC") doing business in Texas and Louisiana. The company, Turner Industries ("Turner"), rigorously defended itself against the allegations, and rather than settle the case, Turner and ten of the plaintiffs went to trial in October 2012. A jury awarded two of the ten plaintiffs in the 2012 Bellwether trial $2 million each in damages, but the plaintiff whose testimony I include above lost at trial and was awarded nothing. It seems, however, that even though eight of the Bellwether trial plaintiffs walked away with nothing, the biggest loser was Turner. Turner spent thousands of dollars to defend itself against the case, and in some circles, its reputation has been profoundly harmed.

Comments

Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/hlr/vol43/iss1/17/