Howard Industries responds to suit

7:21 PM, Jun. 3, 2011
3 Comments


BY JESSE BASS


Howard Industries Inc. has filed an answer to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by four black women who allege the business discriminated against them by not hiring them because they weren't Hispanic.

The answer denies the women weren't hired because of their race and disputes that a class-action suit is appropriate.

Howard Industries' attorneys also argue in the answer that the business can't be liable for punitive damages.

"Any discriminatory adverse employment actions that plaintiffs may prove to have suffered were contrary to the defendant's good-faith efforts to comply with applicable law, defendant's antidiscrimination polices and its good-faith efforts to implement and enforce such policies and to prevent discrimination in the workplace," the answer states.

The answer does, however, admit the four women were hired in 2008 after Howard's Laurel electrical transformer plant became the site of the largest immigration raid in U.S. history on Aug. 25, 2008.

Immigration officials found almost 600 employees whom they alleged were illegally in the United States during the raid.

Veronica Cook, Yolanda Phelps, Charlyn Dozier and Seleatha McGee sued the business Feb. 25, arguing that they repeatedly applied for employment to no avail before the raid.

"As early as August 2000, Howard Industries devised, implemented, carried out and controlled an employment policy whereby Latino job applicants, all or nearly all being undocumented Mexican immigrants, were given preferential treatment in hiring at Howard Industries' transformer manufacturing facility in Laurel," the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction to stop what it says is the illegal practice. Also, the lawsuit asked for unspecified damages.

"We want Howard Industries to pay for the blatant discrimination it allowed to exist in this plant," the women's attorney, Lisa Ross, told The Clarion-Ledger after filing the lawsuit.

Ross said Wednesday she was "ready to litigate" the lawsuit against the business.

"We're prepared to go forward with the case management conference in front of the judge," she said.

Howard industries attorney Richard L. Yoder could not be reached for comment.

The current civil suit is not Howard's first immigration-related legal problem.

Howard Industries pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate U.S. immigration laws Feb. 24 in U.S. District Court.

Former Howard human resources manager Jose Humberto Gonzalez was the only company official accused of wrongdoing after the raid. Gonzalez pleaded guilty in December 2009 to conspiracy to violate federal immigration laws.

U.S. District Court Judge Keith Starrett sentenced Gonzalez to six months of house arrest, five years of probation and a $4,000 fine on March 3.

"I pushed for the company to fingerprint all its employees because I knew they were using false documents," Gonzalez said during his sentencing hearing.

"I didn't have the tools," he said. "I didn't have the courage. ... I should have been more aggressive in complaining and voicing my concerns."

Tim Holleman, one of Gonzalez's attorneys, said Howard pressured Gonzalez to hire more Hispanic workers.

The charge that Howard Industries pleaded guilty to included allegations of conspiracy between Gonzalez and the business.

"It was a part of the conspiracy that (Gonzalez), in the course of his duties for defendant Howard Industries, Inc., would routinely hire illegal aliens and in the process of such hiring would accept false identity documents, including alien registration receipt cards and Social Security cards, despite such documents being invalid," state court documents outlining the offense Howard pleaded guilty to.

The charge also says Gonzalez, in the course of his duties at Howard, would assure illegal workers that they would be warned before a possible immigration raid.

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