Lawsuit alleges Wal-Mart biased against Black truckers
Saturday, September 25, 2004 at 05:57PM
TheSpook
A federal lawsuit alleges Wal-Mart Stores Inc. discriminates against
blacks seeking truck-driving jobs, a contention the world's largest
retailer denies. The suit, filed Wednesday by Daryal T. Nelson of
Coldwater, Miss., in U.S. District Court in Little Rock, alleges
Wal-Mart rejects and discourages black applicants for truck-driving
jobs at the chain's distribution centers in 12 Southern states. The
states are Arkansas,Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana,
Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and
Virginia. Nelson, who is seeking class-action status for his lawsuit,
contends that, in May 2002, after he applied many times for a
truck-driver position with the company, he was promised a job at a
distribution center in Searcy. But when he reported to an area
director, as instructed by the company, the director told him he could
work as a laborer, the suit said. Nelson said the area director used
"racial stereotyping" in expressing "a gut feeling" that Nelson had
falsified his credit rating and driving record. Nelson filed a
complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. An EEOC
document attached to the complaint found "reasonable cause" to believe
the 22-year, truck-driving veteran was discriminated against. [more ] and [more]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
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