Job Bias Complaints to NAACP Double in 1987

Job discrimination complaints filed with the NAACP in Los Angeles doubled in 1987--to 812--largely because of the ineffectiveness of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, NAACP officials said Tuesday.

While not providing specifics, Raymond Johnson Jr., president of the Los Angeles branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, told a news conference that a large number of the cases involve the aerospace and entertainment industries, financial institutions, police and fire departments and the federal post office.

An NAACP attorney, James Foster, said most of the complaints involve promotional opportunities.

“We’ve found that black people are being locked into dead-end jobs . . . and are often passed over for promotion,” Foster said. “This is especially occurring among black women. . . .

“We believe that the reason for the increase in complaints is the lack of leadership by the EEOC,” he added. “The EEOC has lost credibility in the black community.”

“The EEOC is not really part of the solution today,” Johnson said. “Employers are no longer threatened that the EEOC exists. They no longer feel that the EEOC is going to be effective or aggressive in challenging their discrimination practices.”

‘Old-Boy Network’

Johnson said the “apathy of President Reagan and his Administration toward racial discrimination in the workplace” has been compounded by “the old-boy network” in private industry that is “preventing (qualified blacks) from attaining senior management positions and membership on the boards of directors of major corporations.”

Roscoe Jones, deputy director of the EEOC district office in Los Angeles, said Tuesday that he believes that the NAACP charges are unfounded.

“I feel we are very aggressive and effective,” he said. “We’re in court on several cases right now.”

Contrary to the NAACP report, Jones said, his office received fewer cases in fiscal 1987 than it did the year before, with the total dropping from about 4,000 complaints to about 3,000.

The NAACP’s Johnson said that while he had no specific data immediately available, experience has shown that about 50% to 60% of the discrimination complaints filed with the association have merit.