Racial discrimination in the steel industry: Dickerson v. U.S. Steel
In the 1970s, we represented African American workers who had faced discrimination in promotion and hiring at U.S. Steel.
In fall 1969, Moses Dickerson, a certified welder in Birmingham, Alabama read a newspaper announcement from the United States Steel Corporation, whichwas searching for skilled laborers to work in its Fairless Hills plant in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Dickerson soon sat for an interview with Chief Supervisor Bruce Glenn and was immediately hired as a welder and promised assistance in relocation and housing near the plant. When Dickerson arrived at the plant in November 1969, he was assigned a lesser-paying, unskilled position and told there were no more openings for welders. Over time, Dickerson repeatedly requested a transfer to the welder position or access to a high-paying promotion, but his supervisors refused. Additionally, unlike his white coworkers, Dickerson never received any pay increases, and his hourly pay remained at a rate of $2.76.
By 1973, Dickerson was one of approximately 500 African American laborers at U.S. Steel experiencing discriminatory labor practices from the company and the union. Numerous black laborers who were current or previous employees of U.S. Steel experienced rejection from managerial positions, no payment for overtime, biased standardized testing, and forced retirement. At the same time, their representatives in ten locals of the United Steelworkers of America (AFL-CIO) refused to fight for better conditions for black employees. In June 1973, the Public Interest Law Center represented Dickerson and two former employees of U.S. Steel, Millard Starling and Eddie Williams, in the lawsuit Dickerson v. U.S. Steel. Law Center attorneys William Ewing, Michael Churchill, and Prather Randle argued that U.S. Steel’s labor practices were a violation of the equal protection of rights irrespective of a person’s race and color under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and equality in the enforcement of labor contracts under the Civil Rights Act of 1866. In the Law Center’s 1973 complaint, it requested a preliminary and permanent injunction to prevent U.S. Steel from committing further racial discrimination and compensatory relief (e.g., unpaid wages and job placement in rightly-earned positions) for current and past black employees to rectify the “effects of the defendants’ unlawful employment practices”.
In August 1978, the U.S. District Court ruled that U.S. Steel had administered discriminatory written tests to that disqualified black applicants for apprenticeships in skilled trades which contained questions unrelated to an employee’s ability to perform those jobs. The court also ruled that African Americans were underrepresented in a wide range of higher paying jobs, from production to foreman. In June 1982, U.S. Steel agreed to a $2.1 million settlement, in which 500 black employees affected by racial discrimination would receive retroactive pay (approximately $4000 per person) and job placement in the skilled positions they deserved.
Written and researched by Dr. Menika Dirkson
