Johnson v. Bunny Bread Co.

486 F. Supp. 91, 25 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1323, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10556
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedFebruary 22, 1980
DocketNo. S78-0108C
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 486 F. Supp. 91 (Johnson v. Bunny Bread Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson v. Bunny Bread Co., 486 F. Supp. 91, 25 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1323, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10556 (E.D. Mo. 1980).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

WANGELIN, Chief Judge.

This matter is before the Court for a decision on the merits following a two-day bench trial held May 10 and 11, 1979. Plaintiffs, both black males and former employees of defendant, seek recovery of back pay, plus reinstatement, attorneys’ fees and costs and certain declaratory and injunctive relief for defendant’s alleged violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. Plaintiffs also seek recovery of punitive damages from defendant for willful and malicious discrimination on the basis of race pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1981.

Plaintiffs were employed within three days of each other by defendant in the latter part of June, 1975, as helper/eleaners on the bottom of defendant’s seniority list. Plaintiffs allege discrimination by reason of (a) their racially motivated discharge, (b) the terms and conditions of their employment, (c) defendant’s practice of maintaining racially segregated job categories, and (d) defendant’s retaliation for plaintiffs’ filing of charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

After consideration of the testimony adduced at trial, the exhibits introduced into evidence, the briefs of the parties, and the applicable law, the Court hereby makes and enters the following findings of fact and conclusions of law. Any finding of fact equally applicable as a conclusion of law is hereby adopted as such and, conversely, any conclusion of law applicable as a finding of fact is adopted as such.

Findings of Fact

1. Defendant Bunny Bread, Inc. is a corporation doing business in the State of Missouri and is engaged in the manufacture and production of sweet rolls, doughnuts, and fruit breads at its facility in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Defendant employs at least fifteen persons at this facility and is an employer subject to the Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(b).

2. Plaintiffs James Johnson and Benjamin White are black male citizens of the United States, residing in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Plaintiffs were employed by the defendant on June 25, 1975 and June 28, 1975, respectively. At the time of the trial neither plaintiff was employed by defendant.

3. At all times relevant to this suit there was in existence a collective bargaining agreement between defendant and Local 199 of the Bakers and Confectionery Workers International Union of America governing the relative rights and privileges of the parties with respect to the operation and working conditions at defendant’s Cape Girardeau facility. Under Article 21 of the collective bargaining agreement, there were several job classifications of which “helper” and “cleaners” were denominated “miscellaneous classifications” and which were the lowest paying of any of the classifications. Both plaintiffs were hired as helper/cleaners upon referral by the Missouri Employment Security Division, resulting from defendant’s production manager, Rusty Schaffer’s, request of Mr. Frank Rayburn at the employment office for applications from black people.

[93]*934. Although the testimony is conflicting, and the situation is exacerbated by the destruction of certain of defendant’s records during a flood in 1976, it appears that no blacks were working in defendant’s plant at the time plaintiffs were hired. There are presently no pre-1976 records indicating the historical racial composition of defendant’s work force. However, it is clear that both prior, during and subsequent to plaintiffs’ tenure as employees at defendant’s facility, other blacks were employed by defendant. From 1975 to 1978 defendant employed seventy two (72) to seventy four (74) employees. Though a somewhat generalized statistical showing can be proper in a “disparate impact” case, the statistics introduced herein are speculative and are not probative of disparate impact in defendant’s alleged policies of hiring by word-of-mouth, lack of formal merit evaluations, or performance evaluation policies in that plaintiff has not attempted to correlate the ten year old statistics to the work force in the relevant geographical area. Furthermore, the hiring of both plaintiffs was accomplished through just the type of word-df-mouth referral to which plaintiffs object. Additionally, plaintiffs have not shown that defendant’s lack of formal merit evaluations or performance evaluation policies had a disparate impact or operated to exclude blacks.

5. Defendant did not discriminate against either plaintiff in classifying them in the employment category of cleaner/helper. Prior to the hiring of either plaintiff, whites had been hired at the entry level of cleaner/helper and have subsequently been hired at that level. The cleaner/helper job is simply the lowest entry level and lowest seniority job and there is no evidence that defendant’s actions in placing plaintiffs in this category was based upon any discriminatory criterion illegal under the Act. Neither plaintiff has attempted to show that they were qualified for any job requiring greater skills.

6. The terms and conditions of employment of all employees at defendant’s facility, with the exception of Mr. Schaffer, were governed by the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement introduced in evidence. This agreement provided for a “closed shop” in that all new employees were required to join the union subsequent to completing a thirty-day probationary period. It was not the defendant-employer’s responsibility to get individual employees signed up with the union. Plaintiffs did sign up with the union on August 27, 1975. In this regard, the Court notes that defendant did not attempt to influence the union to extend the probationary period of either plaintiff such that they would not be protected by the grievance and arbitration provisions of the collective bargaining agreement in the event of their discharge. Neither plaintiff was at any time denied his right to the minimum guarantees under the collective bargaining agreement providing for seven hours pay per day or forty hours work per week.

7. Because the cleaner/helper category was at the bottom of the seniority list, included among the job duties were those which could be considered the least desirable. A cleaner/helper on any given day could be expected to sweep floors, wash buckets, wash walls with bleach cleanser and provide breaks for workers on the production line. Additionally, at varying intervals usually once a week or twice a month, the milkstone residue in the brew tank would require hand scraping and cleaning, as would the coolers. These job duties did not change because of plaintiff’s race. Pri- or to the hiring of either plaintiff, white employees had done the exact same jobs required of the plaintiffs. Both plaintiffs complained of being shifted excessively from job to job, although it is apparent to this Court that filling in for workers taking breaks on the production line was desirable in that it was the only form of on-the-job training which would prepare a worker for eventual accumulation of seniority and a concomitant shift out of the cleaner/helper category. Plaintiffs complained mightily about the use of a high-pressure sprayer by white employees when cleaning the brew tank, their contention being that the method of hand scraping the brew tank was resurrected especially for them since they [94]*94were black.

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486 F. Supp. 91, 25 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1323, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10556, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-bunny-bread-co-moed-1980.