UFP Industries Plant Must Face EEOC at Racial Harassment Trial

Evidence of rampant use of an abhorrent racial slur at a UFP Industries’ plant in Ranson, W.Va., requires a trial in an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit.

The ruling Thursday by the US District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia turned in part on the principle that racial or other harassment doesn’t always need to be directed at a worker to make their work environment hostile. The court rejected the contention of UFP Ranson LLC that the EEOC won’t be able to prove one of the Black workers—on whose behalf it sued—was harassed because most of the racial ...