Boeing to Pay $14.2 Million to Settle Black Workers’ Discrimination Suit

A federal judge Thursday approved a $14.2-million settlement of a class-action race- discrimination lawsuit brought by African American employees against Boeing Co.

The settlement calls for Boeing to pay a total of $6.5 million to about 3,600 employees plus $4.05 million in fees to the plaintiffs’ lawyers and an additional $3.65 million on workplace diversity programs.

The lawsuit charged that Boeing’s black employees were routinely harassed on the job and passed over for promotion.

In approving the deal, reached with help from civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson in January, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour acknowledged “powerful arguments” by some employees that the award was too small and that Boeing’s plans for improving treatment of minority workers were inadequate.

“The court finds it difficult to reconcile these compelling personal statements with the more positive view of the settlement expressed by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other experts,” Coughenour wrote.

The 70 named plaintiffs and 194 specified in the complaint will split about $3.25 million, while an additional 3,400 current and former Boeing employees will divvy up a $3.4-million pot, reflecting the terms of the original settlement, according to Boeing spokesman Peter Conte.

“We’re very pleased with the court’s ruling,” Conte said, describing race relations at Boeing as “improving.”

Boeing, which has denied any policy or pattern of unlawful racial discrimination, has agreed to improve the flow of information on promotion opportunities and revamp its procedure for resolving discrimination complaints.

These and other measures will improve the chances that African Americans will succeed at Boeing, Coughenour wrote in his decision.

Coughenour heard new testimony last week after originally tabling his decision in May to give a group of disgruntled plaintiffs time to argue for changes.

Their representative, Philadelphia lawyer Alan Epstein, asserted that plaintiffs were misled about the size of individual payouts and claimed he could get a better deal if he were lead attorney for the class.