Firm settles in race bias case

HOUSTON —  Fifteen black and Latino airport workers in Dallas who alleged that white co-workers intimidated them with swastikas, nooses and other racist symbols have settled a lawsuit for nearly $1.9 million, their lawyer and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced Tuesday.

In addition, Allied Aviation Services -- a New York-based firm that employs about 3,000 workers to fuel airplanes at more than 20 airports -- will institute tough guidelines against racial discrimination and take steps to fire workers who taunt colleagues in the future, officials said.

The 2005 lawsuit alleged that the white employees relentlessly intimidated minority co-workers, drawing grotesque caricatures of one Latino manager in a gas chamber, painting swastikas, hanging nooses and putting up a hit list in a bathroom stall. Racist cartoons and graffiti were openly displayed in company work areas, on fuel tanks and even on airplanes, according to the EEOC complaint.

“There were true racists, members of the KKK, working in this place,” said James Vagnini, the plaintiffs’ attorney. “They felt they could get away with it and were untouchable because the company did not have policies in place to deal with them. Even after the suit was filed, they were still bringing nooses and Confederate flags to work.”

Allied Aviation Services, which said it did have anti-discrimination policies in place, stressed that it was not admitting any wrongdoing, but that the company felt settling the dispute was the only way to move forward.

“We disagree with the whole characterization of the case. It is grossly unfair to the company,” owner Robert L. Rose said in an interview. “At the point senior management became aware, we took steps to ensure it would be properly investigated.”

One of those on the alleged hit list -- onetime National Football League player Eric Mitchel -- said he helped organize the lawsuit despite threats that men in hooded white robes would visit his house and admonitions by a manager that he should quit.

“It was, in layman’s terms, a modern-day lynching. It was horrific,” said Mitchel, who now owns a real estate company. “I’m just thankful that I was strong enough mentally that I was able to overcome what was happening. These white employees would pass around KKK membership cards, they would call black people ‘boy’ and ‘coon,’ and they had been doing it so long that no one challenged them,” he added. “Those who did were threatened they’d be killed.”

The EEOC investigated and concluded that the employees behind the racist taunts had received almost no discipline. A man who was convicted of a hate crime after painting swastikas in an airline’s work area was transferred but did not lose his job, Vagnini said.

“The harassment that was involved was egregious, but we see cases like this all the time,” EEOC attorney Suzanne Anderson said. “The thing that stood out in this case was the fact that management took no action.”

Mitchel said he was not optimistic that the climate at Allied Aviation would change.

“A lot of those same people who threatened us are still working there,” Mitchel said.

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miguel.bustillo@latimes.com