Long v. Georgia Kraft Company

328 F. Supp. 681
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedJanuary 8, 1971
DocketCiv. A. 2033, 2103
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 328 F. Supp. 681 (Long v. Georgia Kraft Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Long v. Georgia Kraft Company, 328 F. Supp. 681 (N.D. Ga. 1971).

Opinion

SIDNEY O. SMITH, Jr., Chief Judge.

This is a class action wherein plaintiffs seek injunctive relief and money damages against defendants for alleged racial discrimination in employment practices. They originally asked for injunctive relief relating to the following matters: (1) requirement that Negro employees seeking promotion or transfer and/or applicants for employment pass a test or tests, except insofar as these *683 tests comply with 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-(a) and (h); (2) requirement that Negro employees seeking transfer or promotion to jobs formerly reserved for white employees pass any test which white persons presently holding the jobs were not required to pass, or any test that was required of them because of their race or color at the time of employment; (3) the utilization of a promotion system that takes into account only service on a particular job, and more particularly, from failing or refusing to adopt a nondiscriminatory promotion system based on total years of plant service; (4) maintenance of segregated locker room facilities; (5) maintenance of the “Kraftsman’s Club” on a segregated basis; (6) refusing to allow Negro employees to hold any positions wherein they supervise white employees; (7) maintaining separate lines of progression, on the basis of race or color; (8) entering into any contract or contracts which discriminate against any class or group of employees on the basis of their race or color; (9) maintaining any policy or practice which is intended to deny because of race or color the full rights of plaintiffs and their class the right to enjoy equal employment opportunities; (10) failing to represent, timely notify, or properly grieve on behalf of any individual or group on the basis of race or color.

The complaints in the two actions are substantially identical. No. 2033 was originally brought against all defendants but was dismissed by the Court as to the Union defendants because the charge filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, upon which that action was based, had not been served upon the Union defendants before the issuance of the statutory suit letter. Subsequently, the charge was served and the action was re-instituted. Thereafter the parties engaged in conciliation under the auspices of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a tentative agreement which, if consummated, would have settled these actions was reached. However the proposed conciliation agreement was rejected by the vote of the membership of Local Union No. 804 of the Pulp, Sulphite and Papermill Workers, and of Local Union 654 of the United Papermakers and Paper Workers. The objections of the two Local Unions to the conciliation agreement concentrate upon the portions of the conciliation agreement which effected amendments to the seniority and job progression provisions of the collective bargaining agreement covering the operations of the Krannert Division.

On November 26, 1969, a conference of the parties was held, to ascertain the precise areas of disagreement. It was decided to attempt to arrive at a stipulation of facts, from which the Court could work in making findings of law and deciding to what relief, if any, plaintiffs were entitled. By order entered that day, the testing issues were severed. The parties have stipulated that Georgia Kraft Company has eliminated discrimination, if any, in locker room facilities, and membership in the Kraftsman’s Club. The remaining issues resolved themselves into disputes over whether Georgia Kraft’s existing seniority system was unlawfully discriminatory under Title YII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e et seq., and the nature of the appropriate remedy for any such discrimination. Collaterally, issue was raised as to whether the formerly all-white locals had engaged in any such discrimination, so as to be appropriate objects of any remedy granted.

The cause came on for trial on the disputed issues. Where appropriate, stipulations of fact were made. The proposed Conciliation Agreement was introduced into evidence for the sole purpose of advising the Court of the positions of the Company and the two International Unions on the appropriate scope of relief. The Court has reached its own conclusions regarding contested issues of fact from other evidence in the record.

*684 Pursuant to such evidence, the Court makes the following

FINDINGS OF FACT

(1) These suits were instituted by plaintiffs seeking relief for racial discrimination violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e et seq.

(2) Defendant Georgia Kraft Company is a corporation whose Krannert Division operates a paper mill in Rome, Georgia, manufacturing paper used in corrugated cardboard.

(3) Defendant International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Papermill Workers is the certified collective bargaining agent for certain employees at the Krannert Division of Georgia Kraft Company, located at Rome, Georgia. It maintains Local Unions 804 and 805 for its members at Krannert Division.

(4) Defendant United Papermakers and Paper Workers, AFL-CIO, is the certified collective bargaining agent for certain other employees at the Krannert Division of Georgia Kraft Company, at Rome, Georgia. It maintains Local Union 654 for its members at Krannert Division.

(5) When these suits were filed, plaintiffs Johnie Pinkard, Linell Long and Joe L. McElroy were Negro employees of the Krannert Division of Georgia Kraft. All three had been hired before May 15, 1963, and were members of Local 805, International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Papermill Workers, AFL-CIO. At that time Linell Long was President of Local 805.

(6) The Krannert Division of Georgia Kraft Company was opened in 1954. Shortly thereafter, the Company and the defendant Unions executed a collective bargaining agreement, which has been succeeded by a series of agreements, the latest of which went into effect on August 28, 1968, and expires August 28, 1971. Each of those agreements has provided for a seniority system incorporating job seniority rather than mill seniority as a substantial factor in promoting and laying off employees at the Krannert Division. The Company, the two international unions, and each of the defendant locals negotiated, ratified or were parties to those agreements.

(7) The seniority system currently in effect at the Krannert Division of Georgia Kraft Company governs promotions and layoffs throughout a number of lines of progression.

A. Promotion within a line of progression. A line of progression is a series of jobs through which an employee progresses by promotion to successively higher paying jobs. Under the collective bargaining agreement currently in force there are eleven such lines of progression at the Krannert Mill. (Exhibit A). An employee enters a line at the lowest paying job and thereafter progresses to successively higher paying jobs based on job seniority and job qualifications. When an opening occurs at a higher paying job in a line of progression, and the job qualifications of bidding employees are relatively equal, according to the collective bargaining agreement, the promotion is given to the employee with the most job seniority in the job immediately below the open job, in the same line of progression.

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328 F. Supp. 681, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/long-v-georgia-kraft-company-gand-1971.