Employment – discrimination — unions

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Civil

Employment – discrimination — unions

Where an employee alleges that his union refused to pursue a grievance because he is black, the district court should not have dismissed the claim.

“Nothing in the text or genesis of Title VII suggests that claims against labor organizations should be treated differently. Labor organizations were included when Title VII was enacted in 1964 in part because some states had laws authorizing (even requiring) employers and unions to discriminate against blacks. Many unions had negotiated collective bargaining agreements under which certain jobs were allocated to white workers and others to black workers, or workers of different races were paid different wages for the same tasks. On the district court’s understanding of Title VII, these statutes and contracts would foreclose the possibility of relief against unions. Yet a principal objective of the federal statute was to require labor organizations to disregard those statutes and contracts and to end racial differences in treatment.”

Reversed and Remanded.

13-2823 Green v. AFT

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Norgle, J., Easterbrook, J.