Six sue Mpls Convention Center for race and age discrimination

By Charles Hallman
Staff Writer

Ronald Benford, left, and Betty Martin  -Photos by Charles Hallman

Ronald Benford had been a Minneapolis Convention Center worker for 16 years when he was among several Black workers interviewed in a March 2005 two-part MSR article on job discrimination [“Workers say discrimination rampant at Mpls Convention Center”]. A “probable cause” finding by the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department a year later in 2006 concluded that Benford’s employer, the City of Minneapolis, had created a hostile work environment based on race.

Five years later, according to Benford, Jay Tarbert and Betty Martin, also longtime convention center maintenance workers, nothing has changed there. As a result, the three workers, who were fired by the City in the last three years, are among six persons who have filed a federal lawsuit against the City, convention center officials and supervisors in November, 2010 on race and age discrimination charges.

Five of the six plaintiffs are no longer City employees. All are persons of color and over the age of 40, and most of them had worked at least 15 years at the center.

In a phone interview with the MSR last week, the plaintiffs’ attorney, Christopher Walsh, said he and his staff have researched the plaintiffs’ claims dating as far back as 2006. He said what they found in the personnel files “confirms a pattern of race discrimination.

“Each person has had unequal treatment and unequal discipline compared to White employees, or in some cases, younger employees,” said Walsh.

Agreeing to speak publicly about their experiences, Benford, Tarbert and Martin all said their firings were unjustified during a joint interview at the MSR offices last week. “They [City officials] want to paint a picture that we are just a few disgruntled employees that had a problem with direction and change,” said Tarbert, a 17-year worker who was fired last September for damaging equipment while moving bleachers using a forklift inside the convention center.

Over the past several years there has been a consistent pattern of “micromanagement, hostile work environment, and inconsistent write-ups” against Blacks and other workers of color, Tarbert added. “I just wanted to make it through the day. They created such a hostile work environment that I hated going to work there.”

Tarbert said that as early as 2004 he started documenting a pattern of “ridiculous reprimands” to him and other “senior employees” of color. Both Benford and Tarbert claimed they were suspended for minor infractions while other White workers did not get suspended or reprimanded, even when four White employees were once caught on video stealing from an on-site vending machine.

“We should not be suspended, harassed, followed, or subjected to a hostile work environment when other people are doing the same thing or worse, and they go years and years without a single reprimand,” said Tarbert.

“If you are a White person, you could get away with anything,” Benford said, “but if you was a minority, the smallest infraction [got you fired].” Benford began working at the convention center in 1989 and was fired in June 2008 for various stated reasons including insubordination and violating rules.

Despite a signed conciliation agreement, “They just continued to write me up for any miscellaneous thing I did,” Benford said. “The conciliation agreement was violated.”

While other high-seniority workers allegedly weren’t assigned dirty jobs or heavy lifting, “They [Bedford’s supervisors] would always put me in the high traffic area where I would basically have to be overworked. I endured a lot of harassment.”

“They made up things as they went on,” added Martin, a Native American woman who was hired in 1990 but was fired in March 2006 for “break abuse.”

“The plaintiffs have tried every other channel they could,” claimed Walsh, “human resources, their supervisors and upper management. They went to the City Department of Civil Rights, which for the most part didn’t investigate [the workers’ allegations].”

With nearly 50 percent of the convention center workforce Black and other workers of color, Walsh attributes some of the problems to “a culture clash” between employees and the “overwhelmingly White male” supervisors. A hiring freeze by the City “was an added reason for getting rid of the older Black employees, while unfortunately at the same time keeping older White employees “with similar years of service on the job. It was nitpicky things that the City used” to eventually terminate some workers, Walsh said.

Now 61, Benford said he was often asked by his supervisors when he was going to retire. “I enjoyed working there,” he said, having started in 1989 as a part-time worker and being promoted to full-time three years later.  But, Benford said, “as the years went on, seniority didn’t mean anything anymore, not once a Black person obtains some seniority.”

The lawsuit was filed last November, but the several defendants were served until last month. It seeks reinstatement and over $1 million in damages. Walsh calls it a “mixed motives” lawsuit: “It’s not only race as the only factor of discrimination — there was retaliation [as well].”

A recent Star-Tribune article on the lawsuit cited City Attorney Susan Segal’s brief response: “The City will vigorously defend against the suit. The convention center does not tolerate discrimination.”

Tarbert, Benford and Martin all said they would accept their old jobs back, but only under better work conditions. “I loved my job,” said Benford. “I feel that I was terminated because I was getting close to retirement.”

Martin, who is now working part-time as a personal care attendant, said, “I did my job as well as could be and loved it there. Then management came in and changed everything and got rid of people who had seniority.”

Unemployed since his firing last fall, Tarbert admits that he would go back only if a no-retaliation agreement is in place. “I wouldn’t want to go back without that.”

“The convention center does millions of dollars in business and brings business to our state,” said Walsh. “It should be diverse and reflect the city.” He said the federal suit could set a lasting precedent for other cities on properly treating all city workers.

“It is important because we want to hold management accountable. The goal is to eradicate discrimination.”

Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.