Dive Brief:
- Five electricians are suing Amazon and its contractors for subjecting them to a racially hostile work environment at a Connecticut workplace where work was temporarily halted after workers and police discovered it. at least eight hanging loops during construction.
- The suit follows the closing of an Amazon distribution center in Windsor, Connecticut, where electrical workers of color discovered the ties for several weeks in April and May 2021. The suit claims one of the employers came forward a theory in the FBI that the workers planted the elements at the site in order to be reassigned to higher paying jobs.
- While the FBI and local police investigated the events in Windsor and questioned a person of interest, no one was arrested for display of hate symbols, which made international news. In their lawsuit, the workers claimed that law enforcement officials accused them of hanging the nooses, and further subjected them to workplace hostilities.
Diving knowledge:
According to the lawsuit, filed Sept. 21 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, Amazon and its contractors — Fairfield, New Jersey-based RC Andersen and Holliston, Massachusetts-based Wayne J. Griffin Electric —, should be held liable for damages to colored workers suffered at the site.
While the news coverage of the events it was intense once it became publicthe lawsuit paints a picture of Amazon, RC Andersen and Griffin not responding adequately to the initial discovery of ties and only asking for a total work stoppage after the eighth tie was found.
“The hangman’s noose is widely known to be a symbol of violence and hatred targeting black and brown men,” the suit states. “The appearance of a bow, even a bow, in a workplace sends a clear message of hostility toward the men of color who work there: ‘You’re not welcome here, and you better watch your back.'”
The lawsuit said electricians were the second trade to enter the building, after the steel framers had erected the steel frame. Ironworkers at the Windsor site, the lawsuit claims, displayed bumper stickers and helmet decals featuring Confederate flags.
On April 27, 2021, the suit stated that a black electrician returned to his work area after lunch to find a noose hanging from the ceiling. When workers reported the noose to their supervisors, a brief, informal investigation ensued, with a supervisor asking if anyone had photos on their phones, “because we don’t want the Windsor News to find out about that.” according to demand.
In fact, according to the lawsuit, the April 27 loop was the second one found at the site, even though electricians didn’t learn about an earlier loop that had already been reported until months later, according to demand.
Interrogated workers
In response to the electrician who discovered the noose, the suit said a Griffin foreman gathered the colored electricians to read a statement from RC Andersen about the company’s anti-discrimination policy. But because it was read only to workers of color, the lawsuit says, it sent the message to the site that a tie in the workplace was only a concern for people of color.
In the days that followed, more ties appeared at the site and work was initially halted to increase security and install cameras at the site. Work came to a complete halt when an eighth loop was discovered
While the workers who filed the lawsuit were initially encouraged when they heard of the more serious response to the nooses, they later realized that law enforcement officials had been encouraged to see them as the perpetrators of the crime.
When the FBI investigated, the suit claims, one of its agents investigated a theory offered by a Griffin manager that the electricians had placed the ties at the site in order to be reassigned to higher-paying, more commanding jobs.
The workers “assumed they would be treated as victims, not suspects,” the lawsuit said. But once the FBI aggressively interviewed them, the workers realized that “Griffin and RC Andersen had identified them as possible culprits in hanging the nooses,” according to the lawsuit.
“Plaintiffs were terrified of being the focus of an FBI investigation,” the lawsuit states. “As men of color from poor, working-class backgrounds, they all had tenuous relationships with law enforcement. Here, they had vocally complained about witnessing hate crime behavior in their workplace and yet they were now treated as authors.”
The suit claims the workers were subjected to polygraph tests and an officer took one of the worker’s phones, which ultimately did not contain incriminating information. The allegations against the workers added insult to injury, according to the suit. The electricians are still living in fear of the FBI, because their investigation remains open, according to the lawsuit.
After the workers complained about the ties, the suit claimed, they were reassigned to other but less desirable jobs, a move they interpreted as retaliation for speaking out. The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages from the companies, as well as attorney’s fees and costs.
Amazon, RC Andersen and Griffith did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
