Georgia General Mills Plant Run by Male White Supremacists, Class Action Lawsuit Alleges

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

A proposed class action lawsuit alleges a “fraternal organization of male white supremacists” within management and human resources at General Mills’ Covington, Georgia facility has systematically deprived Black employees of the full and equal benefit of employment by the food manufacturer.

Get class action lawsuit news sent to your inbox – sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here.

The 58-page discrimination lawsuit was filed by eight plaintiffs who allege that the Covington General Mills facility, whose West Plant first opened in 1988 and which reportedly generates more than $1 billion annually, has “embraced a racially hostile work environment” fueled by “white supremacists” who deny Black employees “a seat at the table.” 

According to the case, in the 1990s, white employees at the General Mills facility, “without fear of repercussions from management or HR, openly used the N-word and other racial slurs and attempted to intimidate Black employees with racial hostility.”

The plaintiffs allege that two white men, Jack Gilliam and Greg Cantrell, who previously worked together and were early hires at the Covington plant, “quickly gained control over the management” of the East Plant facility, which opened in 1992, and “are believed to harbor discriminatory beliefs towards people of color and women.” 

“For instance, Cantrell, who called Black people ‘colored’ well beyond the 1990s, also once told a plaintiff to this lawsuit that ‘women should be at home having kids,’” the complaint states.

The case alleges Gilliam and Cantrell have exerted their control and influence at the Convington General Mills facility to take actions with the purpose of “[aggrandizing] and enrich[ing] themselves and their white friends.” Gilliam and Cantrell only allow those who “toe the line” into management and HR positions so as to “maintain control and influence” within the facility, the lawsuit claims.

According to the lawsuit, Gilliam, Cantrell and others formed an organization of white employees called the “Good Ole Boys” who, among other alleged discriminatory conduct, do not hold white employees to the same policies, procedures, and advancement standards as Black employees; impose policies, procedures and duties upon Black workers that are “more onerous and tedious” than those imposed upon white employees; hold Black employees to a high standard of conduct by writing them up and taking adverse action against them at much higher rates and for less-serious infractions than white employees; put Black employees in circumstances and environments that “set them up for write-ups” under the auspices of “doing a favor” or “being a team player”; and provide benefits for underperforming and racist white employees.

Further, the lawsuit alleges Gilliam, Cantrell and other white individuals in management positions give false performance evaluations to Black employees to justify adverse employment actions; receive information about racial discrimination complaints from local and corporate HR and then use them as the basis to target Black employees; maintain a token quota of Black employees who “toe the line” and do not complain about disparate treatment to allow the so-called Good Ole Boys to maintain control over the Covington facility and avoid legal liability; hire and promote white applicants who are objectively less qualified than Black applicants; empower racist white employees to harass and mistreat Black workers, especially temp workers and those with fewer than five years of seniority; and threaten Black employees with demotions and pay reductions.

The complaint alleges that the Good Ole Boys in 2005 commissioned a mural of Stone Mountain with certain General Mills cereal characters portraying Confederate generals, including Sonny the Cuckoo Bird (Cocoa Puffs) as Jefferson Davis; Chef Wendell (Cinnamon Toast Crunch) as Robert E. Lee; and Buzz the Bee (Cheerios) as Stonewall Jackson. (An image purporting to display this characterization can be found on page 14 in the PDF embedded at the bottom of this page.)

“The Confederate Mural was approximately twelve feet tall and more than twenty feet wide and was displayed from approximately 2005 until 2021 at the East Plant, just outside of a production area where Black employees were required to pass every day,” the lawsuit states.

The complaint says that although the Covington facility has held meetings, training and events in the last two decades that purport to promote diversity in response to racial hostility at the plant, this is merely a façade behind which the Good Ole Boys, with the support of General Mills’ high-powered, well-resourced legal team, have treated white employees more favorably than Black employees “in a way that reduces the risk of liability findings in discrimination cases and reduces the risk of paying unemployment benefits.”

More broadly, the proposed class action alleges egregious incidents of racism have been ignored by General Mills local and corporate HR over the last two decades. Per the suit, HR “routinely informs racist white supervisors” about the complaints against them, along with the identity of the Black employees who made the complaints, which “frequently results in retaliation against Black employees.”

The lawsuit alleges “entire careers” at General Mills have been harmed by the alleged Good Ole Boys, causing Black employees and their families to lose “untold millions of dollars” amid “irreparable harm to their career trajectories.”

The General Mills discrimination lawsuit looks to cover all Black employees who, within the last four years, worked at the General Mills Covington, Georgia facility and suffered an adverse employment action in any form, including a write-up or inclusion in the Coaching & Counseling Database.

Are you owed unclaimed settlement money? Check out our class action rebates page full of open class action settlements.