DATE: Sunday, March 30, 1997                TAG: 9703290597

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  148 lines

PENINSULA YARD COMES UNDER SCRUTINY THE ACCUSATIONS ARE SPOTLIGHTING EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES AT THE SHIPYARD.

Billy Souter knew there was something wrong when he looked through the crowd of workers at a meeting for laid-off Newport News Shipbuilding employees last year and saw only four or five white faces.

Most of the 299 layoffs handed layoff notices on Oct. 8 were African Americans.

Souter, a sheet-metal worker with seven years at the big Peninsula shipyard, fought his layoff through the union, but came away without a job.

While the union says 111 of the workers found other jobs in the yard, the shipyard acknowledges that 75 percent of those laid off in December were minorities.

The shipyard says the percentage of minorities laid off reflects the racial makeup of the affected departments.

But the laid-off employees aren't buying it: They are accusing the yard of racial discrimination.

``A lot of white workers with less skills and less seniority than me were being kept,'' Souter said.

The accusations have exploded in the past two weeks, spotlighting employment practices at the yard, which employs 18,000 workers and builds Navy aircraft carriers and submarines. Local 8888 of the United Steelworkers of America represents most of the yard's 12,000 hourly employees.

Both the union and the NAACP will be meeting separately with yard officials this week in efforts to begin resolving the complaints. In a special newsletter to employees last week, the yard's top officer said the company wants to resolve any problems with both the union and the NAACP.

The already complex issue is being further clouded by sniping between the union and the NAACP, an upcoming election of union officers and the allegations of systemic, long-term job discrimination.

The local controversy follows recent problems at Texaco in which it apologized for racial discrimination in its executive ranks. The oil company settled a major discrimination suit and agreed to totally revamp its employment practices.

``I expect the shipyard to be cooperative,'' said the Rev. Lawrence Bethel, president of NAACP's Newport News chapter. ``I'm very encouraged by their initial response, and if they follow through I'm sure we can come to a reasonable resolution.''

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People got involved after several laid-off employees turned to the organization when their grievance claims at the union were denied. The Newport News chapter disclosed its investigation two weeks ago and held a meeting last week at which hundreds of black workers showed up to air their frustration.

Many said they have seen white employees with less experience get promotions and raises, while blacks were passed over. White employees also get better training and most management posts, they said.

The Steelworkers' local, chafing at the NAACP's intrusion, is also pursuing a number of civil rights grievances arising out of the layoffs with the company. A meeting between the yard and the union is scheduled for Wednesday.

At least two related complaints have been filed with federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which does not comment on pending matters.

Meanwhile, the company is scrambling to respond to the allegations and says it wants to work with the union and the NAACP to resolve any discrimination that may exist.

``If discrimination exists, it must be erased,'' wrote shipyard Chief Executive William P. Fricks in a special newsletter to employees last week. ``Every employee is entitled to dignity, respect and fair treatment.''

This could be a case of the best intentions just not being carried out. Unlike the recent Texaco case, most people involved don't think the discrimination starts in the shipyard's executive offices.

``The discrimination that exists in the shipyard does not come from the very top,'' Bethel said. ``It's down in the plant among the middle managers, the people who make the decisions about who gets promotions and raises and who gets laid off.''

Bethel wants to review the complaints filed with the NAACP to see if there was discrimination and, if so, do something to fix it. He also wants to look at the yard's promotion policies and how minorities are treated in the apprentice program.

``I'm sure they just don't have the infrastructure to police discrimination,'' Bethel said.

Besides pushing for an enforcement system, he may also seek racial sensitivity training for yard managers.

Steelworkers' Local President Tom Crudup resents the NAACP's interference. ``I think the NAACP has pretty much overstepped their boundaries by going through the media instead of sitting down with the local and the company to try to find out what happened and work things out,'' said Crudup, who is African American.

Crudup, who is being challenged by two candidates for the local presidency in an April 8 election, says many of the allegations are ``most definitely overblown.''

``I think people sometimes feel they are being discriminated against just because a person of an opposite race got a promotion or a raise they felt like they should have,'' he said. ``Just because he's white and you're black doesn't mean it's discrimination.''

But the workers making the complaints are convinced they were discriminated against and that the union hasn't done enough to represent them.

``Let's talk about the white supervisors who told white workers about the upcoming layoffs, so they could transfer out,'' said Roxanne Carter, who was laid off in December after eight years in the yard. ``When you tell people of one race something that you don't tell another, that's discrimination.''

Carter, a sheet-metal worker, said several white workers in her department transferred out the week before the layoff notices were handed out in October. Layoff notices also went to black workers with more seniority than white workers who didn't get notices, she said.

``If I've got more seniority than them, then I expect them to go out the gate before me,'' Carter said.

The union's contract has a clause that says the company can lay off workers with more seniority if a retained worker with less seniority has better skills and ability.

Carter said that was the rationale she was given, but when she put in for a transfer to another department that needed a forklift-qualified worker, which she is, the job went to a white employee who wasn't qualified.

She's pleased with the NAACP's intervention.

The union local's civil rights committee is working on seven grievances involving about 35 workers, said Judith Boyd, the Steelworker's sub-district director. They are the first civil rights grievances the local has had in recent memory, she said.

``We take any complaint like this seriously,'' Boyd said. ``There may be issues there that need to be dealt with. If we find any layoff was made with discrimination, we're going to be very aggressive about it.''

The committee will investigate each case by going in on an individual basis and making the company prove that skills and ability were the basis of the layoff decision, Boyd said.

``I'm sorry Tom (Crudup) feels the NAACP is undermining the union,'' the NAACP's Bethel said. ``I had hoped he would view the NAACP as a partner in seeking justice and equity in the shipyard.''

Bethel wondered if the upcoming election wasn't coloring Crudup's perspective.

Bethel also said there are issues that the NAACP can raise with the yard that union can't. For example, it can address whether grievance decisions are fair, whether there's systemic racism in the yard and whether the union may have agreed to a contract provisions that allow racial discrimination.

``He's dealing with labor relations, but we're talking civil rights,'' Bethel said. ``We're looking for justice.''

The sheer number of complaints gathered by the NAACP may suggest that something is amiss in the yard. Bethel said the NAACP has close to 120 complaints so far.

``This matter is of great importance to me and to the management at NNS,'' Fricks wrote in the newsletter to employees. ``We do not believe that discrimination took place regarding our layoff. Yet we will investigate and work to resolve specific individual complaints and improve understanding across the yard regarding this and other issues that concern our work force, both hourly and salaried.''

The NAACP may like what Fricks is saying, but it isn't being so well received down on the yard's waterfront, said Bud Moore, a union representative and chairman of the local's grievance committee. Moore is running for local president against Crudup.

``For the company to say they don't know what going on, that's wrong,'' Moore said. ``Nobody's buying that, but it's his company and he can write what he wants.'' MEMO: (Staff Writer Christopher Dinsmore can be phoned at 757/446-2271

or e-mailed at dins(AT)pilotonline.com)

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