Nucor workers, attorneys applaud court ruling

Crane operator Jacob Ravenell of St. Stephen said it’s uncomfortable going to work at the place he sued for discrimination more than five years ago.

Ravenell is one of seven black Nucor Steel workers who sued the Berkeley County manufacturer in 2004 in federal court alleging discrimination in promotions and a racially hostile work environment.

Only three, including Ravenell, remain at the Huger plant.

“Nothing verbally has been said toward me, but you can feel the unease in the air,” Ravenell said during a press conference Tuesday. “A level of tension, it is there.”

The workers’ lawyers held a news conference to laud the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision this month to revive the case as a class-action suit. The three-judge panel sent the case back to U.S. District Court in Charleston.

Giff Daughtridge, Nucor Berkeley plant manager, said Nucor will appeal the appeals court’s decision and that the class action is not justified.

Daughtridge said an internal investigation determined no basis for the allegations of improper promotion practices and that the company’s harassment policy deals with allegations of racial hostility.

“Unfortunately, as with any successful company, Nucor has become a target for plaintiffs’ attorneys eager to score an economic victory based on unsupported baseless allegations,” Daughtridge said in a statement Tuesday. “The (appeals court) panel’s written opinion focused upon highly inflammatory allegations that have little or no evidentiary support and ignored the district judge’s findings.”

Workers’ lead attorney Bob Wiggins of Birmingham, Ala., said the class-action status will refocus the case to change conditions at the plant.

“We believe working conditions at the company should not exist any longer in this country,” Wiggins said.

The plaintiffs allege that racial slurs and noises were broadcast on the radio system at Nucor Berkeley; that some employees used racial epithets when referring to black workers; and that e-mails circulated among some workers depicted blacks with nooses around their necks. They also claim one employee showed a noose to a black co-worker and told him it was for him.

Daughtridge said no evidence exists to support the allegations.

“Allegations of a plant-wide radio system playing inappropriate materials, allegations of racial slurs by plant supervisors and allegations of the sale of Confederate flags at the company store are wholly unsupported by the evidence before the court,” he said. “Most of the other allegations are based upon uncorroborated statements of individual employees and were never reported to Nucor until a lawsuit was filed. Nucor is confident .... it will be vindicated.”

Quinton Brown of Hollywood, one of the plaintiffs who still works at the plant as a furnace stocker, hailed the appeals courts’ decision as a triumph for not only those involved in the suit but all black employees at the plant.

“It’s great,” he said. “It’s needed to bring everything out and get all the facts together.”

If Nucor’s appeal is successful, the case could take several more years, workers’ local attorney Armand Derfner said. If not, the case could go to trial in about a year, he said.

Reach Warren Wise at 937-5524 or wwise@postandcourier.com.