The Virginian-Pilot
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, September 17, 1994           TAG: 9409170372
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: D2   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   50 lines

RAILROAD WORKERS ASKED TO JOIN SUIT

Some Norfolk Southern Corp. employees in Virginia are being solicited to join a job discrimination lawsuit filed against the railroad in federal court in Alabama.

A Birmingham, Ala., attorney sent a letter to railroad employees saying he was seeking to file a class-action lawsuit on behalf of women and blacks ``who have been discriminated against on the basis of their race and/or sex in pay, promotional and/or advancement opportunities with Norfolk Southern.''

Birmingham attorney Jon C. Goldfarb said he will go to court Friday to try to have a class certified to cover African-American and female employees who work for the railroad. Goldfarb represents former Norfolk Southern employee Carol C. Moore. He filed a lawsuit on Moore's behalf in January 1993 alleging she was ``passed over by employees of defendants (Norfolk Southern) who were younger, white and/or male'' for promotions.

Norfolk Southern spokesman Bob Fort said he had heard letters were sent to employees in various operations of the Norfolk Southern system. Fort said he had no comment on the lawsuit because it is pending litigation.

In a class-action lawsuit, an attorney sues a company on behalf of a certain category, or class, of people. If a judge agrees to certify the class, people who fall within it can then have their names added to the lawsuit.

The complaint that originated in Alabama now has the potential to spread to other parts of Norfolk Southern's system. The Columbia, S.C., chapter of the NAACP earlier this month filed a racial discrimination complaint against Norfolk Southern with South Carolina's Human Affairs Commission.

The president of Columbia's NAACP branch, Adell T. Adams, said NAACP attorneys at the association's headquarters in Baltimore are considering joining the South Carolina complaints with the Alabama lawsuit.

``There are a lot of African Americans with far superior educational backgrounds and quite capable of doing the jobs, but it seems as if Norfolk Southern tries to build some disciplinary record against them to keep them from being promoted,'' Adams said.

Norfolk Southern spokesman Rob Chapman said the allegations from the railroad's South Carolina employees ``are groundless.''

``We don't believe there is any merit to those charges that have been brought forth by the NAACP,'' Chapman said. ``Our people met with the NAACP and the state commission and talked about it.''

KEYWORDS: CLASS ACTION SUIT LAWSUIT by CNB