Hunter v. Westinghouse Elec. Corp.

• Decision Date: 31 May 1983
• Docket Number: No. C-2-76-469.,C-2-76-469.
• Parties: Judith HUNTER, et al., Plaintiffs, v. WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORPORATION, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Ohio

576 F. Supp. 704

Judith HUNTER, et al., Plaintiffs, v. WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CORPORATION, et al., Defendants.

No. C-2-76-469.

United States District Court, S.D. Ohio, E.D.

May 31, 1983.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Barbara A. Terzian, Columbus, Ohio, for plaintiffs.

Michael J. Renner, Columbus, Ohio, for defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

DUNCAN, District Judge.

Plaintiffs Judith Hunter, Marlene Murray, formerly Marlene Campbell, and Shirley Vance bring this action pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq., to remedy certain acts of employment discrimination allegedly suffered at the hands of their former employer, Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Specifically, plaintiffs claim that they were discriminated against on the basis of sex when they were terminated in September 1969 following an illegal work stoppage. Plaintiffs also claim that their terminations were in retaliation for past complaints of discrimination, and that they were further discriminated against while employed at Westinghouse with regards to promotions, pay and overtime. Plaintiffs have also sued their local union for violations of Title VII and Scovill Manufacturing, a successor to Westinghouse.

This case was tried to the Court from December 14, 1982 until December 23, 1982. The union was not represented by counsel and made no appearance at trial. At the close of plaintiffs' case-in-chief, the Court dismissed the claims against defendant Scovill pursuant to Rule 41(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. In addition, the Court at that time dismissed all allegations of retaliation except plaintiff Vance's allegation of retaliation.

Following the trial, plaintiffs and defendant Westinghouse submitted separate post-trial memoranda. This case is now ripe for a decision on the merits. The Court's findings of fact and conclusions of law follow. Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a).

I

Plaintiff Marlene Campbell is a female, who was hired by Westinghouse on August 4, 1966, and who at the time of her discharge was employed as a day shift inspector on the iron assembly line at the Byesville, Ohio, plant of defendant Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Prior to her discharge in September 1969, Ms. Campbell's employment record contains no indication of any disciplinary problems.

Plaintiff Judith Hunter is a female who was hired by Westinghouse in April 1969 and who at the time of her discharge in September 1969 was employed as a day shift assembler on the iron assembly line at the Byesville plant. Prior to her discharge, Ms. Hunter experienced no disciplinary problems while employed at Westinghouse.

Plaintiff Shirley Vance is a female who was hired by Westinghouse in May 1969 and who was also an assembler on the iron assembly line at the time of her discharge. Ms. Vance's employment record discloses no disciplinary problems prior to her discharge. The assembler positions held by Ms. Vance and Ms. Hunter were entry level, grade 1 positions. The inspector position held by Ms. Campbell was a grade 2 position. All plaintiffs were members of Local Union 2196, a party to the collective bargaining agreement with Westinghouse.

The plant owned and operated by Westinghouse in Byesville, Ohio, was primarily involved in the manufacture of consumer, household appliances. The Byesville plant first began operations sometime in 1965. The iron assembly line at the Byesville plant had been moved from a Mansfield plant sometime in the spring of 1969. Westinghouse continued to operate the Byesville plant until approximately May 1972 when that plant was purchased by Scovill. The Byesville plant is no longer in operation. At all times relevant to the events of this lawsuit, Charles Warner was the plant manager for Byesville; Charles Welsh was the director of employee relations; Warren Huffman and Don Walters had supervisory responsibility for the iron assembly line.

During all times relevant to this lawsuit, defendant Westinghouse operated two shifts at Byesville — the day shift worked from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and the second shift worked from 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Approximately 50 to 60 people were employed on the iron assembly line for each shift. Work on the assembly line took place in the following sequence: assembly, buffing and polishing, wiping, final inspection and packing.

As of the date of the plaintiffs' discharges in September 1969, there were no women employed as buffers, material handlers, supervisors, or set-up employees on the iron assembly line or elsewhere in the plant. As of that date, Westinghouse employed 370 female hourly employees and 147 male hourly employees. In addition, as of that date, there were in existence ten job grades or classifications. No women at the Byesville plant held any job with a grade classification higher than grade 4.

The process for selecting persons to fill the diverse jobs at the Byesville plant varied depending on the job to be filled. Generally, supervisors were selected by the plant and personnel managers. Other positions at the plant were usually filled by using a bidding procedure whereby a qualified individual with the most seniority who bid for a job received that job. Defendant Westinghouse contends that no woman ever bid for a job with a classification higher than grade 4. Plaintiffs contend that job openings were not posted and that they were never made aware of the bidding procedures.

During the summer of 1969, there were numerous complaints made by employees, including the plaintiffs, concerning working conditions at the Byesville plant. In the summer of 1969, plaintiff Hunter, along with Ms. West and Ms. Adams, wipers on the iron line, complained to Don Walters, supervisor of the iron assembly line, about the dirty restrooms and metal dust coming from the buffing area. Plaintiff Campbell also complained about the dust from the buffing area and the dirty restrooms.

In addition, at about the same time, Ms. Campbell began collecting complaints from women on the iron line and recording those complaints in a notebook. See defendant's Exhibit Q.¹ Among the complaints collected in the notebook, and those which Ms. Campbell personally communicated to both the supervisor of the iron assembly line, Mr. Walters, and the director of employee relations, Mr. Welsh, were the following: dirty working conditions; unfair denial and distribution of overtime; and supervisors doing hourly work. Ms. Campbell also communicated many of these problems to Mr. Hlad, the shop steward for Local 2196, employed as a set-up employee on the iron line and to Mr. Bates, a member of the union executive board.

Shortly after making these complaints to union and management officials, though no date was specified at trial, Ms. Campbell was moved from her job as final inspector on the iron line and given a job as valve inspector. This later job was in the same grade but required her to work closer to the buffers. Ms. Campbell filed no grievance concerning this job change.

In August 1969, Ms. Campbell was called into Mr. Welsh's office for a meeting. Present at that meeting were Mr. Gaydosik, president of Local Union 2196; Mr. Witte, a representative of the International Union, and Mr. Hlad. At this meeting Ms. Campbell complained about being transferred from her final inspector's job but did not discuss any of the problems she had recorded in the notebook. Mr. Hlad was instructed at that meeting by union officials to file a grievance on behalf of Ms. Campbell. No grievance was ever filed.

During this same period of time, in the summer of 1969, plaintiff Vance also made complaints to union and management officials concerning various aspects of her job at the plant. Specifically, she complained about the lack of women in supervisory jobs and the fact that men in higher grade jobs were assigned overtime in place of women in lower grade jobs. Ms. Vance initially made her overtime complaints to Mr. Hlad, the shop steward. When no action was taken by Mr. Hlad, Ms. Vance complained to Don Walters, a supervisor on the iron assembly line, about the fact that a male employee in a higher grade, Joe Underwood, was being given overtime work in her grade 1 assembler classification. At the same time, Ms. Vance informed the union president, Mr. Gaydosik, that she was being unfairly denied overtime. Both Mr. Walters and Mr. Gaydosik informed plaintiff Vance that as a matter of company policy men were given overtime because men had families and therefore needed the money more than women. Ms. Vance never filed a grievance concerning the assignment of overtime.

The enunciated company policy with respect to overtime was to offer overtime to the employee within a particular labor grade with the least amount of overtime to date. Supervisors were responsible for the assignment of overtime. In some circumstances employees in higher labor grades did perform overtime work in lower grade jobs. These circumstances included instances where no lower grade employees agreed to work overtime or no employees in lower grade jobs were present at the plant to do the overtime which normally would have been assigned to them.

Prior to June 1969, there were some circumstances where Joe Underwood, a material handler, did perform overtime work, which normally would have been reserved for employees in lower job classifications. In June 1969, Joe Underwood was replaced by Eugene Oliver and no other complaints were received with regard to male employees being improperly assigned more overtime work than female employees.²

In addition to complaining about overtime, Ms. Vance complained about the dirty restroom conditions. Eventually, Ms. Vance called the Health Department concerning the conditions in the restrooms. Following this complaint, the sanitary conditions in the restrooms improved.

On September 9, 1969, the day prior to the wildcat strike, Ms. Vance was called into Mr. Welsh's office. At that time she repeated her complaints about the...