THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 7, 1996 TAG: 9603070426
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
A jury ruled Wednesday that Norfolk Naval Shipyard did not discriminate against a black painter foreman by assigning him to the yard's excess labor pool and barge maintenance crew in 1994.
The federal jury reached its verdict in the race discrimination trial after 12 1/2 hours of deliberation - and just two hours after jurors told the judge they were hopelessly deadlocked.
Judge Henry Morgan asked the jurors to try again. This time, the jury of seven whites and one black reached consensus.
This was the first discrimination claim against the shipyard in Portsmouth to be decided by a jury, but it may not be the last.
About 80 or 90 other claims by black workers are pending at the shipyard's equal employment opportunity office. Many will be filed as lawsuits in Norfolk's federal court, perhaps as early as next month, said SuAnne Hardee, one of the workers' attorneys.
``We're disappointed,'' Hardee said after the verdict, ``but we've got lots more coming down the pike.''
The case involving Carl Phillips took an unusual route to the jury.
It began as a much bigger, more far-reaching class-action discrimination lawsuit against the shipyard and the workers' union. That lawsuit was filed in 1994 in Norfolk's federal court by 31 black workers seeking a total $58 million in damages.
Last year, a judge dismissed seven of the lawsuit's 10allegations, including those against the union. In September, the workers' lawyers cut back the case, focusing only on the claims of three veteran painters and sandblasters, including Phillips.
The trial began Feb. 23. Halfway through, after the plaintiffs had finished presenting their case, Morgan threw out two of the three plaintiffs' cases, saying they had not presented enough evidence to support their claims.
Phillips, a painter foreman with 19 years' experience, claimed he was sent in January 1994 to the shipyard's excess labor pool because he was black, while white coworkers of lesser rank did supervisory work on ships. He claimed this two-month assignment cost him $5,200 in overtime pay.
Phillips complained about this assignment, then was sent to work on barge maintenance.
Phillips claimed this was in retaliation for making the complaint.
``This case simply boils down to the fact that Carl Phillips was treated differently than his white coworkers, and he was treated differently because of his race,'' Hardee told the jury.
A lawyer for the federal shipyard, however, argued that there were nonracial reasons for Phillips' assignments.
``They basically boiled down to: There was not enough work to keep everybody occupied,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Leonard told the jury.
He said the shipyard was going through a major drop in business at the time.
In one instance, Leonard said, a white coworker had more experience on a ship than Phillips, so he was kept at that assignment. In another instance, Leonard said, a ship's project manager simply did not ask for a new supervisor, even though a white nonsupervisor was doing supervisory work.
``Maybe it's a management problem,'' Leonard told the jury, ``but it's not discrimination.'' ILLUSTRATION: Carl Phillips, a painter foreman, sued the Norfolk Naval
Shipyard.
KEYWORDS: RACE DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT by CNB