Carter v. Chrysler Corp.

• Decision Date: 20 April 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-2580,98-2580
• Citation: 1999 WL 225405,173 F.3d 693
• Parties: 79 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1253 Gloria S. CARTER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CHRYSLER CORPORATION; United Auto Workers, Local 110, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 693

173 F.3d 693

79 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1253

Gloria S. CARTER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CHRYSLER CORPORATION; United Auto Workers, Local 110,

Defendants-Appellees.

No. 98-2580.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Jan. 15, 1999.

Filed April 20, 1999.

D. Eric Sowers, St. Louis, Missouri, argued, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Gerald Kretmar, St. Louis, Missouri, argued, for Defendant-Appellee, Local 110 of the United Automobile Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America.

Harry Wellford, Jr., St. Louis, Missouri, argued (Aaron R. Gelb, St. Louis, Missouri, on the brief), for Defendant-Appellee Chrysler Corporation.

Before: BOWMAN, Chief Judge, MURPHY, Circuit Judge, and VIETOR, ¹ District Judge.

MURPHY, Circuit Judge.

Gloria S. Carter, a black woman, sued her employer, Chrysler Corporation, and her union, United Auto Workers, Local 110, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., and the Missouri Human Rights Act, Mo.Rev.Stat. § 213.010 et seq., for claims of hostile work environment and retaliation. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Chrysler and the union, and Carter appeals. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

I.

On a motion for summary judgment, the non-movant's evidence is to be taken as true and all justifiable inferences are to be drawn in the non-movant's favor. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Quick v. Donaldson Co., Inc., 90 F.3d 1372, 1377 (8th Cir.1996). We accordingly recite the background facts in this light except where otherwise noted.

Gloria Carter started to work at Chrysler in 1976, became a member of Local 110 in 1986, and experienced no particular difficulty before May 1992 when she transferred to a different shift in the engine pre-dress line in the chassis department.

About a month after her transfer Carter went to foreman Charlie Wilson to complain that co-worker Joe Krieger had not tightened the bolts on a transmission that had come down the assembly line to her position. When she returned to her station, Norman Dickens, who worked immediately next to her on the line, threw some screws at her, gave her "the finger," and said "Fuck you, bitch!"

This incident was the first in a series of abusive acts that continued for some two years. Dickens called her "bitch" almost every other day, and frequently cursed, whistled, and gave her the finger. He threw bolts and screws into her work area, sometimes hitting her. He painted a red line to separate their work areas and told her not to cross it. He made racial comments such as "keep your black ass down the line, bitch," and referred to her as "black mother-fucking bitch" or just "black bitch." Once she caught him pouring motor oil on her chair and on the floor of her work area. Dickens and another co-worker, Al Rideout, brought Playboy magazines to work and read them during breaks at a table in Carter's line of sight while she worked at her station. Dickens also stared at Carter in a hostile manner and repeatedly erected a cardboard barrier between their stations. When Carter went into Dickens' work area to get floor dry material stored there, he threw the whole bag against the wall, bursting the bag. Dickens told an investigating Chrysler manager that Carter did "crazy things like one day last summer she stood there and took off her bra. Sometimes she stretches out in the rack, wearing tight fitting pants and does exercises putting her ass up in our faces."

Other things happened to Carter that she suspected Dickens, Rideout, and coworker Ron Beasley had done. At various times she found grease smeared on her safety glasses, trash thrown in her work area, and unwelcome objects placed in her work station, including a dead roach and a photograph of a naked white man. At one point she returned from a break to find her chair smashed. She got a new chair, but Dickens took it into his own work area and sat on it. On at least two occasions, someone smeared catfish bait on a panel in her area, creating a foul odor which disturbed others. Her co-workers told her that there was graffiti in the men's restroom saying "Gloria sucks dick" and you could buy something from Gloria for a hundred dollars.

Sometimes extraneous items came down the line to Carter's station attached to motor parts. On several occasions a glove was placed on an oil dip stick with the middle finger raised. Three signs came down the line which said: "Everybody's picking on me, crybaby bitch," "Suckass [circled and crossed out] the job you elminate [sic] may be your own!" and "Without your pig tail you will never go to heaven you shit sucking bitch." ² At one point she found a dead mouse taped to a motor. When she saw the mouse, Carter screamed and let the motor go by without performing her assigned tasks. She looked over at Dickens and saw him watching for her reaction; he whistled, gave her the finger, and called her "bitch" as the mouse went by.

Carter complained to supervisors about the harassment from the first day Dickens shouted insults and threw bolts at her. She reported that conduct to her supervisor, Larry Inman. Inman, foreman Wilson, Chrysler labor relations representative Date Carpenter, and shop steward Mike Mullens met with Carter and Dickens. Carpenter told Dickens that he could be fired if he continued acting in such a way, but Dickens cursed Carter and gave her the finger after leaving the meeting. Later that day Carter told Inman and Wilson that Dickens had renewed his abusive conduct, but neither did anything in response.

Over time, Carter complained to a succession of supervisors, including Inman, Ron Harmon, Jim Dupee, Jerry Quinn, and Dee Franks. She made reports about various actions directed at her, including the motor oil, fish bait, dead mouse, and chair-smashing incidents. She estimated that she talked to John Kelley, Chrysler's personnel manager, about such actions at least twenty times between September 1992 and January 1994. Sometimes a supervisor would speak to Dickens about the incidents, but these conversations produced only temporary relief at most. A supervisor told Dickens and Rideout that materials like Playboy could not be read at the plant after Carter complained about their presence in her work area, and the magazines disappeared for a while. Some of the supervisors had direct knowledge of offensive conduct from their own observations of the restroom graffiti or the fish bait, and they occasionally arranged to have her work area cleaned.

Several Chrysler managers appeared dismissive or hostile to her complaints. Supervisor Quinn once said "Here comes trouble" as Carter approached him to speak about a new problem. She went to Clarence Ziegelmeyer, the superintendent of the chassis department to tell him that Dickens had told her to get her "black ass back down the line." Ziegelmeyer took no action and merely shook his head and said, "They're playing games again. Kids are playing games again."

Carter also interacted with union representatives. Mullens, the shop steward, was present at the first meeting with Dickens. Carter later reported other offensive incidents, including the one in which Dickens took her chair, to Mullens' successor as shop steward, Larry Rehmert. During 1992 she tried to get in touch with Joyce Carson, chair of the union Civil Rights Committee; she was told at least once that Carson did not have time to talk with her. In March 1993 Chrysler contacted Carson, who then became involved in investigating the situation.

Over this period there was a series of meetings as a result of Carter's complaints. She met with company and union officials in September 1992, March 1993, July 1993. The Chrysler personnel included plant labor relations supervisor Ralph Crause, personnel manager Kelley, labor relations representative Michael Stephens, and superintendent Ziegelmeyer. The union officials included Carson and shop steward Rehmert, as well as union committeeman Tony Candela and union chairman Jim Wideman. Chrysler and union officials interviewed Dickens, Rideout, Beasley, and other workers in the area in which Carter worked. The alleged harassers denied wrongdoing, and other employees denied any knowledge of harassment. Dickens and the others were verbally warned that harassing conduct would lead to their dismissal, but no further action was taken when it resumed. When labor relations supervisor Crause suggested to Carter that she transfer to another area, Carter said she was not going to let them "run [her] off." Representatives of the company and union discussed transferring Carter, but union president Don Woemmel said that such transfers had to be in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement and with her consent. No one spoke to Dickens, Rideout, or Beasley about the possibility of transferring one or all of them.

Carter never formally asked the union to file a grievance on her behalf. After the series of meetings in March 1993, the union decided against filing a grievance on Carter's behalf. Candela stated in his affidavit that he asked Carter in July 1993 if there was anything more she wanted the union to do and she told him that she wanted Dickens fired. Candela responded that only the company had that authority and that in his opinion the company did not have enough proof to terminate him.

In December 1993 Chrysler fired Dickens and Randall Duck after the "pig tail" and "suckass" notes went down the line to Carter. This action came after an investigation which indicated that Duck had written the notes, that Dickens had placed them on the line, and that Carter was their intended target. The company terminated Dickens and Duck for violating company rules of conduct prohibiting harassment. ³ Grievances were filed by the union on behalf of both men, and they returned to work the following month. Crause, the labor relations supervisor for Chrysler,...