Oilfield equipment maker Lufkin Industries recently lost a class-action suit which alleged "700 black employees suffered racial workplace behavior, were skipped over for jobs or missed promotions. White employees were selected and groomed for advancement, moving into managerial positions..." Via The Lufkin Daily News:

A federal judge has awarded $3.4 million in back pay plus interest to Lufkin Industries employees whose class-action lawsuit alleged racial discrimination in hiring and workplace behavior going back decades, according to court documents.

When employees will see their money is unknown, plaintiff's attorney Timothy Garrigan, of Nacogdoches, said Tuesday. The case was filed in 1997 and became a class-action suit in 1999. Many employees have worked for Lufkin for 30 or 40 years.

I have to wonder how long and how many of these battles it will take to beat back this kind of institutional racism. I expect to hear cases of individuals or small groups discriminated against by pockets of old-school bigots (more of which hopefully retire every day), but the scale of this case makes me wonder how far we've really come.

$3.4M among 700 people is less than $5000 each, on average. That's not much, considering the pile of stunted careers and curtailed earnings inflicted upon these workers.

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