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Bias suit now class-action case
By ANITA KUMAR © St. Petersburg Times, published December 26, 2000 During her nine years at Western Auto, Briget Drayton worked in the store's lowest-level job of cashier, repeatedly asking to be considered for training and promotions. Instead, the black woman said she had watched white men get promoted. She said she got paid less than white men in the same position, including those who were just hired. And, she said, she took a leave of absence after managers made disturbing remarks about her race. "You people are so stupid," she said a white assistant manager once had told her. Another time, she said, a white employee had told her, "N-----s just make me sick." After she complained to higher managers, she said, nothing was done. Drayton and two other former St. Petersburg store employees sued Western Auto -- now part of the retail giant Advance Auto Parts -- for racial discrimination in 1998. This month, their suit got a huge boost. A federal judge in Tampa certified the suit a class action, allowing the company's former black employees and job candidates from around the nation to join. At least 1,000 people have been identified as members of the class, but that could change, according to court documents. In the next few months, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Lazzara is expected to authorize attorneys to begin contacting those employees, probably through letters or advertisements. Attorneys for Advance Auto of Roanoke, Va., declined to comment on the case last week. But in court documents the company repeatedly denies the accusations. Jim Wade, company president and chief financial officer, also declined to comment except to say the allegations were made before Advance Auto took over Western Auto. "It doesn't relate to Advance Auto," Wade said. "We at Advance pride ourselves on our employee relations." The suit was filed on behalf of Drayton, Wanda Gibbs Mitchell and Anthony Rich -- former employees who had worked at the Western Auto store on 34th Street N in St. Petersburg. As a class action, though, the suit could include black workers in Western Auto's retail division or those who applied for jobs there since July 7, 1994. Attorneys at Florin, Roebig & Walker, the Palm Harbor law firm representing the three, declined to comment last week. Class-action suits give ordinary people the ability to take on big business by contributing little money. But once people are involved with the suits, they are stuck with the outcome. In the decade or so since class-action suits became popular in the United States, they have involved high-profile products, such as fen-phen diet drugs, tobacco and breast implants. Several suits involving tires have been filed against Bridgestone/Firestone recently, but legal experts say no judge has certified any of them as class-action cases yet. In the Western Auto case, the former employees claim the company discriminated against black workers by: Assigning them to jobs with limited promotional opportunities. Denying them full-time status. Paying black workers less. Retaliating against black employees who complained about the policies. Western Auto also matched workers to the racial makeup of the customers, meaning it confined black employees to stores in black areas of a city. "You shop where you're comfortable, I shop where I am comfortable and that -- I mean, we've proven -- I mean, that from a business standpoint it's a no-brainer," regional vice president Don Lockard said in a 1998 deposition. The suit, originally filed in Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court and then transferred to federal court in Tampa, was brought against both Western Auto, which no longer exists, and Advance Auto Parts. The Sears-owned Western Auto, which also operated Parts America stores, merged with Advance Auto Parts in 1998. Advance Auto touts itself as the second-largest automotive parts retailer in the nation, with more than 1,750 stores and 23,000 employees in 37 states. The company has about 40 stores in Florida. Drayton, Mitchell and Rich had jobs that were phased out when Western Auto became Parts America, court documents say. Drayton was a cashier for nine years; Mitchell, a cashier for 13 years; and Rich, a mechanic for almost three years. At the time they filed suit, none of company's top 85 executives were black and fewer than 2 percent of 600 store managers were black, court records say. The plaintiffs are asking that the company stop engaging in discrimination, set up programs to provide opportunities for minorities and restore black workers to the jobs and salaries they would have had if not for discrimination. The three also are requesting compensatory and punitive damages for themselves. In court documents, the company unsuccessfully argued that the case should be dismissed or at least not certified a class action for many reasons: The former employees' statute of limitations had expired; they are not entitled by law to be rehired because they are not claiming they were fired based on discrimination; and the burden is extreme and would seriously disrupt operations. Advance Auto also said that Western Auto's retail division no longer exists and that the company would have to restructure the business to comply with demands. "Advance is an innocent employer," court documents say. "There is no claim, much less than evidence, that Advance ever discriminated against plaintiffs or any members of the putative class." - Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.
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