The teachers and support staff union at a small Lansing school district agreed to settle a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the department announced in a news release.
The Sunnybrook Educational Association agreed to pay District 171 custodian Eugene Johnson $110,000 after Johnson alleged the union discriminated against him when it contested his promotion to head custodian in November 2018.
According to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in May 2023, the union either ignored the promotion or negotiated an agreement with the district when non-Black employees were awarded salaries outside of the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.
The EEOC found in 2022 that there was “reasonable cause” to believe that the union violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The department said before filing the lawsuit, it invited the union to informally work “to eliminate the unlawful employment practices and provide appropriate relief,” but that they were unable to come to an agreement.
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“Title VII’s prohibition of race discrimination applies to labor organizations as well as employers,” Victor Chen, an EEOC spokesperson, said in a news release. “The EEOC is committed to holding unions accountable for their unlawful conduct.”
The EEOC declined to comment on the settlement beyond the news release.
The settlement requires the union to meet multiple conditions outside of direct payment to Johnson, including sending district officials a letter stating that if Johnson is up for a promotion in the future, the union will not grieve the promotion, according to the consent decree filed in the U.S. District Court. Aug. 28.
The agreement also includes an injunction preventing the union from enforcing the collective bargaining agreement between the union and the district on the basis of race and from retaliating against anyone who opposed any discriminatory practices or participated in any related investigation.
Within 60 days of this school year, the union leaders must complete a training on Title VII, including how to fairly represent members without considering race. If any of the $110,000 Johnson is owed is not “issued and mailed” about a month after Judge Joan B. Gottschall’s approval of the settlement on Aug. 29, or after Johnson signs a release for the union, the union will need to pay Johnson an additional $50 per business day.
Before agreeing to settle, the union held that all “actions with respect to Johnson were taken pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement in effect at the relevant time and were not motivated, in whole or in part, by Johnson’s race.”
The union also stated Johnson was not entitled to compensation, punitive damages or attorneys’ fees because the union did not engage in “unlawful, intentional, reckless, willful, wanton or malicious conduct toward Johnson to injure or with substantial knowledge or belief that injury would substantially occur at any time.”
District 171 Superintendent Erika Millhouse-Pettis said, as of Friday, the union had not made the district aware of the consent decree reached with the EEOC. She confirmed Johnson was not promoted since the union grieved his promotion to head janitor in 2018.
“We adhere very much so to the bargaining agreement that we have with the (Sunnybrook Educational Association). We adhere to all the rules that we’re supposed to follow through the state of Illinois,” Millhouse-Pettis said.
She said she was not superintendent when Johnson was denied the promotion and that as an African American woman she is “not going to discriminate.”
“I don’t care what the color of your skin is,” Millhouse-Pettis said. “I’m just looking for someone who can do the job.”
District 171 includes Heritage Middle School and Nathan Hale Elementary School. Attorneys for the Sunnybrook Educational Association did not respond to requests for comment.