Noose hanging at job site targeted Black worker at NC electric company, lawsuit says
Stevie Lamont Stuckes was working as a lineman for an electrical company based in North Carolina when he arrived at a job site one day in 2019 and found a noose hanging from the machinery, his lawyer says.
Stuckes is Black. The other four crew members were white.
Now Stuckes — who says he was fired from his job six months after reporting the incident — is suing Pike Electric for reportedly violating federal anti-discrimination laws.
Pike Electric LLC is based in Mt. Airy near the Virginia border. Senior Vice President of Administration James Banner told McClatchy News in a statement Thursday the company “takes these allegations very seriously and took immediate action at the time to address the incident.”
“We believe these allegations completely distort the facts and the company’s response,” he said. “Pike looks forward to responding in court with the facts as they actually happened.”
In a statement provided by his lawyer, Abbey Krysak of the law firm Weaver, Bennett & Bland PA, Stuckes said he was “hurt” by Pike’s comment in response to the litigation.
“I’m telling my story,” he said. “They know what happened to me was real and it was wrong. I want change but I know changing the way people think isn’t easy.”
According to the lawsuit filed in the Western District of North Carolina on Tuesday, Stuckes lives in Mecklenburg County and worked for Pike there before he was fired. During the nearly three years he was employed, Krysak said in the complaint Stuckes was subject to a workplace culture rife with “racially charged ‘jokes’” and racial slurs.
‘Feared for his safey’
Pike reportedly hired Stuckes in November 2017. While on job sites, the lawsuit states his coworkers often told him, “You don’t know where you at, boy,” and used other derogatory language about Black people.
“The comments and ‘jokes’ were directed at Stevie to let him know his place as a Black man among white people,” Krysak said in the complaint.
The alleged harassment escalated in October 2019, when the lawsuit states Stuckes was assigned a job in Clearwater, Florida. Pike reportedly paid for his accommodations and travel to and from Charlotte during this time.
Stuckes was the only Black person on the five-person crew, one of whom is accused of frequently making racist remarks. In one instance, the complaint states the crew member made “derogatory comments about the African American staff” at Church’s Chicken.
And within a month of their arrival, that same crew member is accused of pulling a knife on Stuckes while telling him to “mind your damn business.”
“Stevie, immediately frightened, backed off,” his attorney said in court documents. “He apologized to de-escalate the situation. The threat put Stevie in imminent fear of harm — Stevie knew (his coworker) was in possession of a gun while in Clearwater and feared for his safety.”
Stuckes said he reported the incident but nothing was done. He reportedly found the noose a few days later, on Nov. 10. 2019.
Their crew leader photographed it, the complaint states.
“He knew the noose was meant for him because the Clearwater Site crew was small, Stevie was the only African American crew member, and each crew member knew Stevie worked on that part of the Pike machinery,” Krysak said in the complaint.
Though Stuckes again reported the incident, the lawsuit states the company “did nothing to alleviate the terror Stevie felt.”
Stuckes was transferred back to Charlotte later that month, where he was reportedly demoted to a “floater” position covering shifts for employees who called out. Krysak said his hourly pay was also cut.
A few weeks later, the complaint states he was demoted a second time to an “underground” worker who dug ditches and holes for power lines. According to the lawsuit, Stuckes was eventually laid off with four other workers in May 2020.
He later found out those four people had either gone back to work for Pike, were given the chance to return or were injured and couldn’t work for the company, the complaint says.
Similar complaints made before
Stuckes isn’t the first to accuse Pike of racial discrimination.
Between 2004 and 2008, federal court filings show at least four other lawsuits were filed against the electrical company. Two were filed in Alabama, one in Mississippi and another in North Carolina.
All of the complaints made similar claims concerning “inappropriate remarks about African Americans,” a “pattern and practice of intentional and systemic race-based discrimination” and “repeated racial slurs.” In one case, a Black employee reported finding “hangman’s nooses” at a job site in Alabama in 2002.
Three of the lawsuits were settled out of court, and a fourth was dismissed.
Stuckes’ complaint makes claims for a hostile work environment, retaliation, violation of the Civil Rights Act, wrongful discharge and negligent retention and supervision. He is seeking a jury trial, a permanent injunction barring Pike from engaging in discriminatory conduct, at least $25,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees.
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 3:40 PM with the headline "Noose hanging at job site targeted Black worker at NC electric company, lawsuit says."
