Four Working at Ga. Power Site Link Noose Protests to Firings

(© 2002 Atlanta Journal-Constitution) Four African-American employees of a contractor at a Georgia Power Co. power plant claim they were fired after complaining about hangman's nooses in the workplace, their lawyer said Monday. Georgia Power spokesman John Sell said that's not true. He said the workers were fired by their employer, an Alabama-based insulation company, "for absenteeism and tardiness" after being warned they faced dismissal for attendance problems.

The utility acknowledged last month that seven hangman's nooses had been discovered by private contractors working at Plant Wansley in Roopville, 50 miles southwest of downtown Atlanta. The firm said it did not believe any of its workers were involved, and it has offered a $20,000 reward for information about who was responsible. "No individual has yet been connected to the incidents, but at least four contractor employees under suspicion have quit the job,'' Sell said.

Attorney Steven Rosenwasser said the four African-American workers were subjected to racial harassment at Plant Wansley last month. In addition to being subjected to the display of nooses, he said, the four were "spit upon by white employees'' and subjected to a racially offensive placard posted in a restroom on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday last month. Rosenwasser said the four complained about the incidents to Georgia Power management and were fired two days later by their employer "at the direction of Georgia Power Co.'' Sell denied the allegation. Mark Clark, president of General Insulation, employer of the four workers, said Monday the workers' allegations "had nothing whatsoever to do" with their firing. Clark said they were fired for absenteeism after being warned they faced dismissal. "That was the only reason," Clark said.

Sell accused Rosenwasser's law firm, Bondurant Mixson & Elmore, and the law firm of trial lawyer Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. of trying to use the current matter to force settlement of another lawsuit brought by the two law firms against Georgia Power and its parent, Southern Co. Hangman's nooses also figured in that lawsuit, filed on behalf of seven African-American employees in July 2000. The suit alleged bias in employment, personnel and human resource policies as well as racially hostile workplace conditions.

In August, a federal judge denied a motion by the seven employees to declare their lawsuit a class action on behalf of 2,400 past and present African-American workers. Attorneys for the two law firms have appealed. Rosenwasser denied any attempt to pressure Georgia Power. But he said the latest allegations demonstrate that the company has "done nothing'' to improve racially hostile work conditions. General Insulation, based in Theodore, Ala., is one of numerous ouside companies working at Plant Wansley, where 1,300 employees of outside contractors are building new generators and installing environmental controls at existing units.

General Insulation and other contractors have been advised of Georgia Power's "zero tolerance" policy toward racial harassment, Sell said. He also said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Heard County Sheriff's Department are investigating the incidents, and the company is taking "firm actions to try and identify'' those responsible for "any racially insensitive behavior" at the power plant.

(Copyright © 2002 Atlanta Journal and Constitution)