
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 9, 1994                   TAG: 9406100013
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-14   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                                 LENGTH: Medium

BLACK WORKERS ALLEGE BIAS IN NORFOLK SHIPYARD POLICIES

More than three dozen black employees at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard have hired a team of attorneys to raise complaints of race discrimination involving layoffs at the government-owned facility.

The 38 workers, most of them sandblasters, contend that blacks will bear the brunt of shipyard job cuts because they have been disproportionately relegated to lower-level positions and denied training that would let them advance.

Workers on the lower rungs of the job ladder say they are especially vulnerable to layoffs because under federal civil service regulations more senior employees can ``bump down'' to lower-level jobs when their positions are eliminated.

The complaints are similar to a $130 million federal lawsuit brought in Florida last month by a group of workers who accused Navy installations in the Pensacola area of discrimination against black civilian employees.

Earl C. Walton, a 20-year veteran of the Portsmouth yard who is leading the workers' group here, said racial divisions in shipyard jobs are becoming more evident now that the work force is being pared and higher-level workers are scrambling to stay employed.

``In order to save their jobs, they want to take away our jobs,'' Walton said.

By the end of this month, the yard's work force will be 7,600, down from 11,200 at the end of 1992. More layoffs are anticipated as the yard's backlog of ship overhaul and repairs declines.

The shipyard declined to comment on the workers' allegations while the complaints are being reviewed. However, a brief filed by an attorney for the yard argued there is no basis for the complaints.

SuAnne L. Hardee, one of the lawyers hired by the workers, said the shipyard's policies are having a disproportionate impact on blacks.

``They've applied arbitrary categories to people without relation to their skill level, so on the face of it the yard can say it's lower-skilled workers, not black workers'' being released, she said.

So far, the compaints have gone to the shipyard's Equal Employment Opportunity office. But the workers say federal lawsuits may be filed soon.

by CNB