United States v. United States Steel Corporation
| Decision Date | 11 December 1973 |
| Docket Number | 66-625,69-165 and 71-131.,Civ. A. No. 70-906,69-68,67-121,66-343,68-204,66-423 |
| Citation | 371 F. Supp. 1045 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, Luther McKinstry, et al., Plaintiffs; William Hardy, et al., Plaintiffs; John S. Ford, et al., Plaintiffs; Elder Brown, et al., Plaintiffs; Elex P. Love, et al., Plaintiffs; Thomas Johnson, et al., Plaintiffs; James Donald, et al., Plaintiffs; James Fillingame, Plaintiff; v. UNITED STATES STEEL CORPORATION et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Alabama |
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
John N. Mitchell, Atty. Gen., Jerris Leonard, Asst. Atty. Gen., Wayman G. Sherrer, U. S. Atty., Robert T. Moore, Deputy Chief, Employment Sec. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for plaintiff (Oscar W. Adams, Jr., Birmingham, Ala., designated as liaison counsel for plaintiffs in related cases).
John C. Bird, Gen. Atty., Southern Area, U. S. Steel Corp., and William K. Murray, Thomas, Taliferro, Forman, Burr & Murray, J. R. Forman, Jr., Birmingham, Ala., for U. S. Steel Corp.
Jerome A. Cooper, Cooper, Mitch & Crawford for USW.
Consolidated trial of these Title VII cases1 began in June, 1972. In December, 1972—after hundreds of witnesses, more than 10,000 pages of testimony, and over ten feet of stipulations and exhibits (the bulk being in computer or summary form)—the parties rested, subject to the submission of certain supplemental computer studies and analysis. Trial would have been even more prolonged but for the severance of one major issue (test validation) and for the very professional attitude of all counsel in expediting trial.2 A decree of over 150 pages was entered May 2, 1973, covering most issues; and on August 10, 1973, a final judgment was entered covering all remaining issues except that of test validation. This preface is given to explain why the court in this opinion has chosen not to deal with each aspect and issue but rather to focus on matters related to the few questions as to which appeal has been taken.3
"Fairfield Works", one of the largest units of United States Steel Corporation, consists of nine plants in Jefferson County, Alabama. Two (Ore Conditioning; Coke & Coal Chemicals) process raw materials. Two (Ensley; Fairfield) are basic steel producing facilities, with some finished products. Four (Tin; Wire; Sheet; Bessemer Rolling) make finished products. The ninth4 (Rail Transportation) provides rail transportation services for the other eight.
The plants came into being at different times, and some were initially under different ownerships. Ensley, the oldest part of the works, was started in 1886, while Ore Conditioning, the most recent, was constructed in 1939-40. The nine plants now form a single interrelated steel producing operation, with operational responsibility vested in a General Superintendent. His principal managerial assistants, called Division Superintendents, have functional responsibilities which may include operations at more than one plant.
Similarly, union organization—and subsequent management recognition—occurred at different plants at varying times during the late 30's and early 40's. Two locals of the Steelworkers represent production and maintenance (P & M) employees of the Rail Transportation plant; a separate Steelworkers local represents P & M employees at each of the other eight plants. A separate Steelworkers local represents plant protection employees throughout the works, and another represents the unionized clerical and technical (C & T) employees works-wide.5
In recent years the basic principles for employment of P & M employees have been established in triennial industry-wide negotiations leading to, e. g., the 1965 Basic Steel P & M Agreement. These principles have, however, since 1953 been modified on a local basis through the adoption of "local seniority rules and regulations", in which the various locals have asserted their independence in collective bargaining. The consequence is that, though the basic principles are similar, there are ten separate arrangements governing seniority for P & M employees at Fairfield Works, as well as a separate arrangement for plant protection workers and one for the unionized C & T employees. It should be noted that employees holding trade and craft (T & C) positions in a plant are part of the same local which represents non-T & C employees at that plant and are subject to the same collective bargaining agreement, though with some special provisions for T & C jobs.
In the steel industry in general, and at Fairfield Works in particular, there are significant fluctuations in operational requirements and, hence, in manpower levels. Some jobs may be worked on a three-shift-a-day, seven-day-a-week basis ("21-turns"), and then at other times worked one-shift-a-day, five-days-a-week by a single man or crew ("5-turns"), or even completely halted, with a variety of intermediate manning levels. Within a given plant one operation may be on a 21-turn basis and another, during the same period, on a 5-turn basis. This fluctuation constitutes a major factor in the study of the "system" at the works and, in turn, is dealt with at length in the collective bargaining rules.
On a relatively busy day one would expect to find some 12,000 persons on the job6 at Fairfield Works, of which some 27% would be black employees.7 P & M employees constitute the bulk of the work force—typically some 3,100 blacks and 6,000 whites— and, accordingly, it is not surprising that this litigation has tended to focus principally on employment practices and conditions concerning P & M employees.
There are over a thousand P & M positions, most of which are filled by more than one employee on a given day. These positions have a technical name generally descriptive of their principal function, e. g., "Rail Straightener Helper", and frequently have a shop name, e. g., "Gagger". Each position has a prescribed job class level, e. g., "JC 4", which determines the relative wage scale for that job in comparison with other jobs.8 Most, but not all, positions have production-oriented incentive pay arrangements, either direct or indirect, some by individual performance and others by crew or group productivity. The differences between these negotiated incentive plans may be quite significant: for example, a JC 2 position with a "good" incentive plan may be more attractive financially than one rated JC 6 with a "poor" plan. Of course, the earnings of any individual P & M employee are also dependent upon how many hours are worked and when (e. g., overtime, shift premiums, and Sunday and holiday premiums).
Within each plant the higher paying jobs—virtually all in JC 5 or above, and some in JC 4—are grouped for promotional and retention purposes in ladder-like sequences called lines of progression or promotion (LOP).9 The groupings generally, but not always, are composed of occupations which work together on some process (e. g., feeding and operating a rolling machine) or which perform similar functions (e. g., maintaining production or inventory records). For the most part the upward sequence is from the lowest JC occupation in the line to the highest; but, here again, there are numerous instances in which a higher job in the LOP may, whether by reason of its JC level, incentive plan, or otherwise, be a lower paying job in practice than one or more of those below it.
When a vacancy arises in a job in an LOP, those persons on the immediately preceding rung of the ladder are entitled to first consideration. If one of these persons is selected, this may create a vacancy on that step of the ladder, which in turn is filled by promotion of a person on the next preceding rung, etc. If this process ultimately produces a vacancy on the bottom step of the ladder, it is filled by bringing a new employee into the LOP.
The selection of which of several employees on the same step of the LOP is to be promoted is essentially10 a question of which is the "oldest" employee. At this point a generalization as to works-wide practice can no longer be made; for under some local plant rules the oldest employee is the one who has been on the preceding job longest (occupational seniority), while in others it is the employee with longest service in the LOP (LOP seniority), in the department (departmental seniority), or in the plant (plant seniority).
In most plants the method for determining age for promotional purposes is also used to determine age for the purpose of job entitlement on reductions and increases in manpower levels. The younger or junior employee so determined, is, in a work reduction, "rolled back" to the next lower job or jobs in the LOP until his age is sufficient to allow him to "hold", thereby displacing at that point a junior employee who then in like manner rolls back into lower jobs or into the pool. The process is, in essence, reversed on an increase in manpower levels. There are various special rules, not identical for all plants nor necessarily uniform within the same place, to cover particular situations; such as where a younger employee is for some reason holding a higher job in the LOP, or where an employee prefers "going to the street" and taking supplemental unemployment benefits (SUB), or where an LOP contains lower jobs that, due to prior mergers of lines or otherwise, the employee has not previously worked. There are special rules covering temporary assignments and delineating between those vacancies considered permanent and those deemed temporary.
The lower rated jobs, except in the Ore Conditioning Plant, are grouped into pools, which generally correspond to geographical divisions or departments in the plant.11 These offer no promotional opportunities as such;12 rather they are essentially "waiting" jobs—more menial jobs to which employees are...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Croker v. Boeing Co.(Vertol Div.)
...for the unauthorized acts of its employees, even if those employees are front line supervisors. See United States v. United States Steel Corp., 371 F.Supp. 1045, 1054 (N.D. Ala.1973), modified on other grounds, 520 F.2d 1043 (5th Cir. 1975). Liability can only be premised on the employer's ......
-
U.S. v. Allegheny-Ludlum Industries, Inc.
...loss theory, the additional fifty percent representing an estimate for unmatured future effects of past discrimination. See 371 F.Supp. at 1060. It is also useful to note that within the three departments in which the sixty (or sixty-one) successful claimants worked, there were some 298 oth......
-
Swint v. Pullman-Standard
...indicates that economic harm is not a necessary element of a prima facie case. The same district judge in United States v. United States Steel, 371 F.Supp. 1045 (N.D.Ala.1973), after finding that a prima facie case of racial discrimination had been made, presumed damages to a particular sub......
-
Patterson v. American Tobacco Co.
...can assume his new position. See Bush v. Lone Star Steel Co., 373 F.Supp. 526, 538 (E.D.Tex. 1974); United States v. United States Steel Corp., 371 F.Supp. 1045, 1060 n. 38 (N.D.Ala.1973), modified on other grounds United States v. United States Steel Corp., 520 F.2d 1043 (5th Cir. 1975). 1......
-
Pragmatism over politics: recent trends in lower court employment discrimination jurisprudence.
...Alabama steel industry agreed to a wholesale overhaul of its seniority systems, which had grossly disadvantaged African-Americans. See 371 F. Supp. 1045 (N.D. Ala. 1973). Judge Pointer also served as the trial judge in the case that would after consolidation become Martin v. Wilks, in which......