Because of the emphasis on Hispanic recruiting, often the company plant managers and assembly line leaders are Hispanic as well, and “they didn’t want them there,” Williams said.
A group of African-American men filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Chicago federal court alleging systematic discrimination by a temporary staffing agency and several of its clients they say passed over black applicants in favor of Hispanic workers.
The lawsuit against Personnel Staffing Group, which does business as MVP Staffing, is seeking class-action status. The clients named as defendants are Blommer Chocolate Co., Segerdahl Graphics, Mercury Plastics, MPS Chicago (which does business as Jet Lithocolor), The Penray Cos., ARI Packaging and Lawrence Foods.
The alleged discrimination took place at MVP Staffing’s Cicero branch office, which the lawsuit claims was directed by clients not to send African-American workers to their companies for assignments.
Those wishes allegedly were communicated using code words, according to testimony from former dispatchers and on-site representatives given in prior cases and attached to the filing as evidence. For example, according to the lawsuit, “guapos,” which translates to pretty boys, would be used to refer to African-Americans to suggest they don’t want to do dirty work. The terms “feos” (translated to mean “dirty ones”),” “bilingues” (bilinguals) and “los que escuchan La Ley” (referring to people who listen to Spanish-language radio station La Ley) were used to refer to Hispanic laborers, the lawsuit alleges.
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