Bakery Workers Awarded $11 Million in Bias Suit
S A N F R A N C I S C O, Aug. 1 -- A jury has decided that the nation’slargest wholesale baker discriminated against 21 black workers andawarded them $11 million in damages.
Interstate Bakeries Corp., the Kansas City, Mo.-based companythat produces Wonder Bread, Twinkies, Home Pride and HostessCupcakes, said it would appeal the verdict reached by a SanFrancisco County jury.
“We are disappointed with today’s verdicts. This was a long andcomplex trial with many witnesses and many hours of testimony,”company lawyer Kathleen Maylin said Monday.
Some of the workers hugged and kissed each other after a courtclerk read the decisions.
The plaintiffs, all workers at one San Francisco plant, claimedthey were denied promotions, subjected to racist comments and giventhe worst shifts.
Sweep the Parking Lot
Theodis Carroll Jr., 34, a former machine operator, saysco-workers called him “boy” and a common racial epithet. A juryawarded him $155,000.
Charles Wright, a 52-year-old former deliveryman who was awarded$700,000, said white workers were allowed to take days off to seethe San Francisco Giants.
“When I asked for Martin Luther King Day off, I was denied,”he said.
Howard Jones Jr., a former route salesman, was awarded $1million. He was put on light duty after being hit by a drunkendriver, but the company demanded that he sweep the parking lot, hesaid.
“I refused. I was treated like I was at the bottom,” he said.
The jury also found that the company acted with malice andoppression toward 19 of the plaintiffs. For them, the trial willcontinue as they will ask the jury to award punitive damages.
The bakery also said it would ask the judge to reduce thedamages because some of the allegations, which date back more than30 years, occurred when Ralston Purina owned the plant, Maylinsaid. Also, she said, the award should be lowered because theallegations were not filed in a timely manner.
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