Sixteen Coca-Cola workers have filed a lawsuit against two of the company’s five production plants claiming they were forced to work in racially discriminating and hostile environments.
Recently filed in a New York federal courthouse the black and Hispanic workers described the facilities as a ‘cesspool of racial discrimination,’ according to the New York Daily News.
‘I’ve never been called so many names as I have been at Coca-Cola,’ Sondra Walker, a merchandiser at the Maspeth plant in Queens told the Daily News.
Ms Walker said among the names she was called freely and without punishment on the floor were ‘Nappy Head’ and ‘Aunt JaMamma.’
The 16 workers between the Maspeth plant and Elmsford in Westchester, both in New York, claim the racial minorities were assigned the less favourable assignments and received disciplinary action as well as retaliation if they complained.
Ms Walker said that in one instance at the plant, a white worker complained of an assignment to clean out a sewer responding with words that expressed the chore being below him.
‘What am I, a n***** or something?’ the worker responded, according to Ms Walker.
‘I thought this was a fair and honest company, as American as apple pie,’ Guillermo Nunez, who joins Ms Walker in the lawsuit, said to the Daily News.
In a statement received from Coca-Cola by the Daily News, spokesman Toney Anaya said the company is currently investigating the allegations.
He added the company does not tolerate discrimination in the workplace.
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WTF? News of the Day: Lawsuit filed against Coca-Cola claims shocking anti-Black & Hispanic slurs in their factories
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