Lawyer for Black workers at nuclear complex charges Westinghouse: Nuke Lawyer Says He Was Threatened

By Page Ivey, AP, Friday 21 January 2000 8:20 PM ET

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)⏼A lawyer representing black workers at a federal nuclear complex who are suing over alleged racial discrimination says he was hit by a car and threatened during a trip to South Carolina to meet with his clients last spring.

Attorney Ivan D. Smith of New York told the CBS newsmagazine program 60 Minutes about the threats for a story scheduled to air Sunday night.

Smith represents workers at the Savannah River Site near Aiken who say, among other things, that they were given jobs that exposed them to radiation hazards more often than other workers.

Smith said in a deposition that when he visited South Carolina in June 1999 to meet with his clients, he was hit by a car driven by a white man who shouted at me ‘Nigger get out’ as I bounced off the hood of his car.

He said his nose was broken and he suffered other injuries from being hit.

Smith said he also received threats at his New York home. He said he never reported them to police for fear other potential attackers would learn where he was staying.

The lawsuit, filed in 1997, accuses Westinghouse Savannah River Co., which runs the former weapons complex for the U.S. Energy Department, of discriminating against blacks in raises and promotions. It also says the company failed to stop the use of racial epithets and intimidation of black employees.

The company has denied the allegations.

Also named in the lawsuit were subcontractors Bechtel Savannah River Inc., Babcock & Wilcox Savannah River Co. and British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. Savannah River Corp.

The workers seek back pay, compensatory and punitive damages and changes in how promotions and pay raises are made. Federal law prohibits such suits from seeking a specific monetary sum.

We do not tolerate discrimination against any group, or against any individual, Westinghouse SRS spokesman Will Callicott said Friday. We regret that this case has resulted in litigation.

About 90 employees are represented in the suit. Smith wants to turn it into a class action representing all black employees of the companies.