Civil Rights Class Action Accuses Pipeliners Labor Union, Contractor of Ongoing Racial Discrimination

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A proposed class action accuses Local 798, an Oklahoma-based pipeliners labor union, of discriminating against Black members by blocking their advancement efforts, giving preferential treatment to white members and creating a racially hostile environment wherein Black individuals face “severe and pervasive harassment.”

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The 41-page lawsuit was filed by a Black union member who claims he “faced discrimination every day” at worksites operated by co-defendants Michel’s Corporation and subsidiary Michels Pipeline, Inc., which contract with Local 798 to hire union pipeline welders and crew for energy and infrastructure projects across the United States.

The suit relays that until the 1980s, Local 798 had no Black members at all thanks to the union’s “explicit, exclusionary policy.” After the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the union over its allegedly “racist history,” an Oklahoma court ruled in the mid-1980s that Local 798 had indeed engaged in “intentional discrimination against Black people,” the case shares.

Instead of putting an end to the discrimination, this ruling instead caused the labor union to “change the way it discriminates,” as in recent years, the defendant, the complaint alleges, has continued to relegate Black members to “permanent second-class status.”

The filing claims that, for one, Local 798 has imposed job advancement requirements “designed as a glass ceiling” to keep Black members from moving up in the union.

Per the lawsuit, union members are typically classified into two skilled laborer positions—“helper” or “journeyman,” with the latter being more highly regarded and generally compensated double what a helper earns. The suit says that to become a journeyman, a union member must complete a certain number of hours of employment and obtain five letters of recommendation from welders or journeymen members with whom they have worked directly, among other requirements.

The case charges that while these conditions may seem to be “racially neutral,” they are “applied almost exclusively and disproportionately to the detriment of the Black members.”

“Local 798 and its White members use the requirements as a pretext so that Black member [sic] cannot advance,” the complaint argues. “In order to have any hope of advancing, Black members … are dependent upon being given work hours and recommendation letters from Journeyman union members who, a few short years ago, actively rejected Black people from joining the union, let alone joining the journeyman ranks.”

What’s more, the defendant “loosens or circumvents” these advancement conditions for white members, as those with less experience and seniority than Black members—“or even no seniority”—have been able to join the labor union and quickly become journeymen, the filing contends.

In addition, white helpers are given early notification of new work openings “so that they [can] bid on job opportunities first” and are chosen for work even if Black helpers’ bids are more competitive, the lawsuit claims.

The suit further alleges that white workers receive preferential treatment in times of lay-offs and are also regularly paid under-the-table overtime, in cash, while Black laborers are told that overtime is “not available to [h]elpers.”

The plaintiff says he was hired in April 2023 as a welder’s helper at the Michels Pipeline worksite in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where he claims to have routinely experienced explicit racial discrimination from his colleagues and superiors that worsened over time.

As the case tells it, “[t]he White workers were visibly offended by [the plaintiff’s] presence because of his race, and they let him know about it.”

The plaintiff alleges that at the worksite, he was subjected to racist jokes, repeatedly called “boy” despite asking to be called by his name, and verbally and physically threatened by his supervisor on multiple occasions. When the man reported the harassment and threats to a union steward and foreman, the two men apparently “laughed,” the complaint relays. The plaintiff claims he was laid off the next day.

According to the filing, the man has worked at other Michel’s worksites and experienced the same treatment at every location.

“The pattern and practice of ongoing discrimination and hostile work environment at the Local 798 and Michel’s work sites across the country was such that members know that filing a grievance is futile because white members who observe the discriminatory conduct will not testify on their behalf,” the case asserts, adding that “complaining members face even more severe consequences and harassment, and when complaints are lodged no action is taken.”

The lawsuit looks to represent any current or former Local 798 members who worked at any Michel’s site in the United States pursuant to the National Pipeline Agreement between Michel’s and Local 798 at any time in the past four years.

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