Former Hughes Employee Files Discrimination Suit
Four current and former Hughes Aircraft employees alleged Tuesday that the Los Angeles-based aerospace firm has discriminated against minority employees with the support of the Electronic and Space Technicians Local 1553, which represents Hughes workers.
The major allegations were brought by Erick Hicks, a former technician at the firm who was laid off in August, 1987. This March, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that Hicks had been “subjected to unwelcome harassment, which was overtly racist, severe and pervasive, which created an abusive working environment and was known to management.”
The EEOC determination, which was made by Los Angeles District Director Judith A. Keeler, found that Hicks faced “racial harassment and a hostile working environment because of his race, black.”
Keeler found that Hicks had been laid off just after he was promoted to a new job classification in which he was the most junior union member, effectively reducing his seniority and making him vulnerable to a layoff.
At a news conference Tuesday, Hicks said he has filed a $5-million federal lawsuit against Hughes, stemming from the EEOC findings. He said he has been unemployed since his termination at Hughes.
Complaint Filed
A Hughes Aircraft spokesman declined to comment on the allegations, citing a policy against comment on matters under litigation.
Tim Cochran, a former senior union steward at Hughes, said that after he had supported a number of black employees in grievances involving charges of racial discrimination he was stripped of his elected union office last January and then laid off by the company.
Cochran, who is white, said he has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging collusion between Hughes and the union. Cochran said he was removed from his elected office by the union president, C. J. Jackson, only three days before the company announced a layoff in his labor classification.
Charles E. Cleaver and Greg Meyer, both former senior union stewards at Hughes, said they supported Cochran’s allegations. Meyer, a white, said he was dismissed by Hughes in May, but Cleaver, a black, continues to work at the company.
The Electronics and Space Technicians local is an arm of the Los Angeles County District Council of Carpenters. An official of the council said Cochran and Meyer are dissident union members who lost their bids for elected positions in the union earlier this summer.
The official, who asked that he not be further identified, said Cochran’s allegations of collusion had been fully investigated by James K. Bernsen, a Carpenter’s official and former Hughes union president. Bernsen presented a report to the union’s membership early this year, saying that he had found no evidence of collusion.
