Sara Lee settles environmental racisim discrimination suit for $4M

Sara Lee has settled a race discrimination lawsuit for $4 million. Seventy-four black employees filed a federal lawsuit saying they were exposed to more hazardous environments than their white co-workers, and they were exposed to racist slurs and racist graffiti. The complaint alleges KKK graffiti and a noose were found on the site.

The plaintiffs said factory supervisors assigned them positions with increased exposure to black mold and asbestos, putting them at higher risk for developing cancer than white employees.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission performed a two-year investigation of Sara Lee’s Paris, Texas facility, including interviewing former bakery workers. The investigators found evidence of black employees being berated and insulted by white supervisors.

This was described as the largest race discrimination settlement in the last 15 years in the Dallas district office of the EEOC. Sara Lee did not claim liability for the claims in the suit and said they would take preventative approaches to workplace harassment including anti-discrimination training.

Jay Ellwanger, an attorney for a number of the plaintiffs who filed the original complaint with the EEOC in 2011 described finally bringing a measure of relief to people who worked in these conditions for decades as ‘pretty satisfying’.

Relevant reading:

The Economic Analysis of Labor Market Discrimination: A Survey, by Glen G. Cain, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Economic and statistical expert Dwight Steward, Ph.D.’s article ‘The Human Side of Employment Discrimination.’

Race and Waste: The Quest for Environmental Justice by Tara Ulezalka.