Eight current and former employees at a General Mills plant in Covington, Georgia, have filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the company, alleging decades of racial discrimination, CBS News reported Wednesday.
The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta, accuses the company of violating federal civil rights laws and state and federal gang laws. according to The plaintiffs allege that the facility’s white managers engaged in a number of racist acts aimed at punishing and intimidating black employees, they told CBS News.
The allegations include an incident in 1993 in which a noose was allegedly left on a black employee’s desk and racist slurs were written on work schedules. Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that white employees openly used racist slurs in the 1990s without fear of retaliation from management, CBS News reported. The lawsuit also accuses General Mills’ senior management of failing to reprimand supervisors for allegedly engaging in racist behavior.
The federal lawsuit alleges that managers at the General Mills plant engaged in racially discriminatory practices against black employees for years.
https://t.co/kgonCQIKXM—CBS News (@CBSNews) June 6, 2024
The company also alleges that its human resources department regularly leaked the identities of black complainants to white supervisors, which subsequently led to retaliation against those employees, according to the outlet. General Mills, which opened the Covington plant in 1988 and is known for making popular cereals such as Chex, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs and Trix, declined to comment specifically on the ongoing litigation. (RELATED: ‘Squad’ Member Asks Janet Yellen If ‘Racism’ Threatens U.S. Financial System)
But the company emphasized its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion: “General Mills has a long-standing and ongoing commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and does not tolerate discrimination of any kind,” the company said in a statement, CBS News reported.
According to CBS News, the lawsuit adds to a growing list of alleged racial discrimination cases in various workplaces across the country. Recent cases, such as an $11.2 million settlement with fitness chain Equinox and a $3.2 million jury award to a former Tesla factory worker, point out the potential legal and financial consequences of failing to effectively address racism.
