Employment — Sex discrimination — unions

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U.S. Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Civil

Employment — Sex discrimination — unions

Where a union had a policy of never referring women to a particular class of employers, the district judge erred in dismissing her sex discrimination claim.

“The judge’s belief that ‘failure to refer’ cannot violate Title VII contradicts the statute, which states that it is unlawful for a union to ‘fail or refuse to refer for employment any individual’ because of the individual’s sex. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e- 2(c)(2). If a failure to refer were a consequence merely of inadvertence, and if despite the occasional such failure women received a reasonable number of referrals from the employer, there would be no basis for inferring discrimination on the basis of sex. But the complaint alleges that the plaintiff made repeated, futile requests for referral by the Movie/ Trade Show Division, until Local 727’s business agent told her ‘don’t call us, we’ll call you.’ At that point, for her to have continued to make requests to him for referrals would only have reduced her chances of ever being referred. The union knew she badly wanted driving jobs on film or TV projects, yet every time there was an opening wouldn’t refer her for it, pursuant to a policy of never referring women drivers, though fully qualified, for such openings.”

Reversed and Remanded.

14-1710 Stuart v. Local 727

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Shadur, J., Posner, J.

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