Local plant: Harassment suits settled Apollo Colors: Rockdale firm agrees to pay in racial cases ROCKDALE — Part of Donald Newell's job as a maintenance worker at Apollo Colors was to paint over the swastikas, the KKK letters, and the racially offensive slogans that appeared with alarming regularity on the walls of the manufacturing plant. "I was the one who had to paint over the graffiti," Newell said. "Every day. Every day this was going on. There wasn't a day when it wasn't." Newell also was the man who cordoned off a locker and waited for police one day in September 1998 when a black employee discovered a photograph of his children with nooses drawn around their necks. In the family photo, which the worker kept inside his locker, a young boy wearing a blue Mickey Mouse shirt grins broadly for the camera while another boy builds a wall with cardboard bricks. The meticulously drawn nooses encircle their necks and rise from behind their heads. Black employees allege that this was the racially threatening environment that management allowed to exist at Apollo Colors, a Rockdale company that manufactures pigments for the printing ink industry. The company last week agreed to pay $1.8 million to settle two racial harassment lawsuits, one filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of 23 current and former black employees, the other brought by the Joliet law firm of Spesia, Ayers and Ardaugh on behalf of nine black workers. The EEOC lawsuit accused the company's management of "creating and maintaining a racially hostile work environment" by allowing restrooms, locker rooms and break areas to remain covered with "racially offensive graffiti." Documents filed in connection with the other lawsuit allege a pattern of racial harassment dating back to 1986. Plaintiff filings allege that statements and slogans such as "white power" and "kill all n----rs" were found regularly on the manufacturing plant's walls and lockers. The document also cites instances in which supervisors laughed openly at racist jokes. One of the plaintiffs, Trent Perry, said he complained to supervisors about a noose that someone had placed above a piece of machinery called a flusher that is used in the manufacturing process. The noose hung above the unit for five months before an employee climbed up and took it down, he said. Perry said he has no doubt that the noose was meant to send a threatening message to black employees. "I know what a noose is and what it's used for," he said. "I came in every day, and I had to look at it." The settlement, which was signed Friday, requires management to inspect for racial graffiti daily and to remove it within 24 hours. The company also must install surveillance cameras near the entrances to restrooms, locker rooms and break areas to record anyone who might scrawl racial epithets on the walls. The company also must develop a new policy prohibiting racial harassment and provide sensitivity training to employees. Attorney Christian Spesia, who represented the nine plaintiffs, described the settlement as one of the largest of its kind in Illinois. "Racial hatred should not and will not be tolerated in the work place," he said. "It is not just the monetary relief that the victims will receive. The settlement is a significant achievement in the elimination of bias and prejudice in the work place." The 23 claimants in the EEOC complaint will receive $375,000 from the settlement. Spesia's nine clients, none of whom is currently employed by Apollo Colors, will receive $1.45 million. "I'm glad it's settled," said plaintiff Terry Fuller. "We paved the way for employees to have a better situation than we did." Apollo Colors President Tom Rogers could not be reached for comment. But he issued a written statement indicating that the plaintiffs themselves were responsible for the graffiti. "The racist graffiti stopped as mysteriously as it started," he said. "However, the ending of the graffiti coincided with the departure of most of the plaintiffs." Rogers also alleges that some of the plaintiffs have criminal backgrounds, though he declines to name them individually. Apollo Colors attorney Daniel Kinsella said the company admits to no wrongdoing and that the settlement is strictly a business decision aimed at avoiding a lengthy and costly trial. Kinsella insisted that management took every step possible to halt the graffiti and ferret out the culprits. The company asked Rockdale police to investigate when graffiti was discovered and posted notices warning against racial harassment. Management also asked the FBI to assist and offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a suspect, he said. The company already has taken many of the steps mandated in the settlement, Kinsella said. Surveillance cameras already have been installed, and supervisors already have attended sensitivity training sessions. But they will sign up for additional training to comply with the settlement's terms, he said. The company already has a policy prohibiting racial harassment, but management will revise it as required by the EEOC, he said. Kinsella also questioned the credibility of the plaintiffs, drawing attention to discrepancies in their depositions regarding the graffiti and the nooses. In one court memorandum, Kinsella argues that the noose hanging above the flusher unit was not a racial threat. He argued that it could have expressed an individual's distaste for supervisors, or it could have been a loop of rope used to hang a pipe. "There is nothing about a rope or even a noose, in and of itself, that expresses racial hostility or racial intimidation," the memorandum states.
While I can understand why many businesses choose to settle rather than go through long, drawn-out court sessions, I would rather see them fight than give in to these Jesse Jackson type tactics.
These people had no proof as to who was responsible -- and it could easily have been any of the black plaintiffs with grand hopes for a fat check!! Blacks haven't supported Jesse Jackson all these years without learning something of his strong-arm tactics!!
Why is it that blacks don't realize that their constant, unsubstantiated claims of racism only further divide our country?
Not to mention reparations ... well, enough of a rant already, so I'll address that farce another day.