Rough Ride on the Trolley : Black Worker Does About-Face, Charges Bias on Rail Project

Jackie Washington, a stocky, black rail hand, was a convincing figure as he came to the defense of his embattled employer before the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.

It was last February, and Herzog Contracting Corp., one of the major builders of the $750-million Los Angeles-to-Long Beach trolley, had been accused of discrimination by several black former employees. In the hearing room of their downtown office building, members of the commission that oversees the project were listening to testimony and wading through statistics when someone asked: Why are there no black crew leaders on the job?

In a moment, there was Washington, in work jeans, a T-shirt and a baseball cap, rising from his chair to offer a correction: he had been a promoted to crew leader several months earlier. The 36-year-old Washington seemed to be a powerful refutation of the charges, particularly since he had signed statements, under penalty of perjury, that he had seen no evidence of discrimination.

In the end, the commission took no action against Herzog.

Now, however, Washington is telling a dramatically different story, one that alleges that racial discrimination and stereotyping were common with Herzog, one of the main contractors on the huge, publicly financed rail project.

Feared Losing Job

No longer talking like a star witness for his company, Washington said he was a puppet who betrayed his co-workers out of fear of losing the highest-paying job he had ever had. He said he helped create a “totally inaccurate” picture of Herzog’s early treatment of black workers--workers he now says were targets of racial slurs and who were repeatedly denied a fair share of work assignments. Even as he stood to defend the company at the hearing, Washington now says, he was being shortchanged in pay, compared to non-black crew leaders with similar responsibilities.

Washington has given his new account to The Times, the Transportation Commission and to Herzog officials. In reply, Herzog representatives strongly denied any racial bias or that workers were coerced into defending the company.

“We’ve done a pretty exhaustive look into each one of the allegations,” said Al Landes, a Herzog vice president who is overseeing the project. “We’ve not found any instances where we see discrimination.”

But, in an assessment some critics said reflects the firm’s biased attitude, one Herzog spokeswoman told The Times that the friction is the result of a schism between production-oriented, out-of-state white supervisors and “laid back” California blacks who are not accustomed to hard work.

“People here (in California), and I’m talking about blacks specifically, have a laid back sort of attitude,” said Patricia Bagby, who is black and an employee relations specialist hired by Herzog to deal with the workers’ complaints and to advise the company on management strategies.

“(Black) people here did not grow up with the same kind of work ethics that other black people grew up with,” Bagby said. “So when you take a hard-working white person, especially in construction” and put him in charge of “people who are not conditioned to working hard . . . you’ve got this hard worker and this person who is not willing to work and you’ve got a conflict. . . .

“That’s what I’ve seen here and that’s what I’ve tried to explain to these people.”

One black man, former Herzog worker John Higgins, said Bagby’s assessment is not surprising. “Her function is to make blacks feel like they are wrong,” he said.

Unwelcome Attention

The recent developments have again drawn unwelcome attention to Missouri-based Herzog, whose non-union California arm is among the more controversial of the major contractors building Los Angeles’ new multibillion-dollar commuter rail system.

The family-owned firm, which got its start in California rail construction several years ago building San Diego’s Tijuana Trolley, has been dogged by both the racial bias charges and opposition from organized labor, which is upset that Herzog beat out local, unionized firms for about $55 million in contracts.

The bitter running disputes have been politically sticky for some of the county’s leading rail system boosters, such as Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and county Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, both of whom are allied with labor groups and the minority community. These officials have long touted the trolley project running from Los Angeles through Watts to Long Beach as a job-creating economic boon for poor, heavily minority areas.

Thus far, the commission has said it has found no basis for acting against Herzog, saying it must await the results of a more a detailed investigation of the discrimination complaints by state and federal agencies.

Press for Explanation

But Hahn, state Sen. Bill Greene (D-Los Angeles) and Los Angeles Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky are among those who have pressed the commission to explain its response to the charges, mostly because of the tenacious pursuit of the issue by a former Herzog worker, Dennis Johnson. Johnson was fired last November and was among the first of several workers who have filed discrimination charges with the commission and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Now, adding to the racially loaded controversy, is the about-face by Washington, who still works for Herzog.

Washington seems to be just the type of person whom elected officials hoped the project would benefit. He grew up in Compton and now lives with his wife and two children in a tidy Lynwood apartment. He had been a warehouseman before hiring on to the high-paying Long Beach rail project, and Herzog officials described him as a good worker. While he was demoted to a laborer a few months ago--not long after the commission hearing--company officials said it was because of a work slowdown. Otherwise, he could still be a crew leader, they said.

At first, Washington said that if he criticized the company, he feared that he would lose his $20-plus-per-hour job. “(I was) trying to protect the welfare of my wife and family,” he said. He recently chose to come forward with the truth, he said, because he had been troubled, and felt he had been used as an “Uncle Tom” against other black workers.

‘I Betrayed People’

“My wife convinced me to come out and be a man about the situation,” Washington said. “I betrayed a lot of people. I felt bad about it.”

Even as he defended the firm before the Transportation Commission, Washington said he had heard racist characterizations of blacks by co-workers, once in the presence of a supervisor. Routinely, he said, blacks were treated unequally in work assignments and were shouldering the brunt of slow periods through lopsided cutbacks in their hours.

Although commission attorneys said they saw no evidence of discrimination, a study of Herzog records by Deloitte Haskins & Sells concluded that blacks were laid off and terminated more often than other workers. But the consulting firm told commissioners last February that it could not determine whether discrimination was involved, in part because Herzog had not maintained records to show whether similar procedures were used for all workers.

Washington said he felt that he had to defend the company because he had seen other workers fired “really without knowing (why).”

“That was (what) really scared me,” he said. “(There was) really no procedure or no guidelines if you (were) going to get terminated.”

‘We Can’t Use Them’

Specifically, Washington said, a project superintendent, who had not spoken to him before, approached him when the racial discrimination charges surfaced early this year. The supervisor asked him to discreetly discuss the allegations with other black workers and report back, Washington said. But when he returned and said that a number of black workers felt that they, too, were being treated unequally, Washington said, the superintendent responded, “We can’t use them . . . they’re against the company.” At that point, Washington said, he knew he had better defend the firm.

That supervisor, who company officials said denied making such statements, has since been dismissed and has left the state for reasons not related to the discrimination investigation, Herzog officials said.

Washington is not alone. Higgins, who attended the same public hearing and who also signed a statement strongly defending the firm, said his statement was not accurate.

Higgins, who like Washington has filed discrimination complaints against the company, recalled that when the charges surfaced, an attorney from Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg & Phillips, a large Westside legal and lobbying firm with strong Democratic Party ties, interviewed employees. The law firm represents Herzog and helped prepare a response to the discrimination allegations, including collecting statements from workers.

Before he went to see the lawyer, Higgins said, a supervisor reminded him that he had requested a reference for a permanent job elsewhere.

“I know this (job) is another year at best,” Higgins said, recounting his thoughts at the time. “The (other job) is 20 good years. I didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize (it).”

Another employee, who asked not to be named, also said that he did not want to attend the commission hearing on the company’s behalf but felt he had little choice. This worker said that “most” of his signed statement defending the company was true.

Company officials insisted that all employees gave their statements and attended the hearing voluntarily. They also point out that neither Washington nor Higgins alleges that any direct threat was made.

Herzog attorney George Kieffer said: “We can’t explain Jackie Washington’s statement as to why it was different yesterday or today. . . . There still has been brought to light absolutely no instance of discrimination. The company has dealt with this whole question openly and honestly and directly.”

In defense of the company, a veteran black construction worker, Otis Moore, said Herzog treats workers better than most firms he has worked for. Moore said he believes that the complaint filed by Washington is merely an effort to “get rich” through lawsuits or settlements. Washington denied this.

However, Dennis Johnson acknowledged rejecting a company settlement offer and, at one point, telling Herzog officials he felt he was entitled to $125,000 in lost wages and damages.

Since declaring itself totally vindicated by the commission’s action last February, Herzog has been quietly working to improve its relations with minority employees and to resolve some of the discrimination complaints, company officials acknowledged.

One white worker was fired, Landes said, in part for using a racial slur against a black employee. Company officials also acknowledged that they have begun encouraging supervisors to give blacks a more equal share of work hours. Blacks have received fewer hours because they do not have the experience the company needs, Landes said.

Critics suggested the company, by its recent actions, has tacitly acknowledged that blacks were not treated equally before. But Landes said the company is merely trying to improve itself and its relations with workers.

Meanwhile, union officials have pushed for an investigation of Herzog’s bids for the trolley work.

Prod Attorney General

Sen. Greene and Assemblyman Richard E. Floyd (D-Hawthorne), both union allies, prodded the state attorney general’s office to review alleged irregularities, which include charges that Herzog failed to properly disclose past citations for labor law violations.

“There’s enough there that we’re interested,” said Chief Assistant Atty. Gen. Richard Martland. Among other things, Martland said, his office is reviewing an earlier commission investigation of the bids, which found no basis for action against Herzog.

Kieffer, the Herzog attorney, predicted that the state inquiry will be closed quickly. “Every single issue raised by the parties associated with labor has been resolved in Herzog’s favor, and Herzog has been given a clean bill of health at every turn,” he said.

Herzog’s critics, however, have shown no sign of backing off.