Union Pacific Worker Fails to Show Bias Linked to Anxiety Onset

A Black former moveable bridge operator with Union Pacific Railroad Co. lacks evidence of disability or race bias in the company’s decision to bench him with pay while it assessed his fitness for duty following an altercation with a co-worker that caused him anxiety, the Western District of Louisiana ruled.

Bridge tender Rufus Trevillion said he didn’t recall ever being diagnosed with anxiety prior to the Aug. 13, 2014, incident in which a co-worker blocked his path on the steps to a bridge shack in an effort to provoke him. The co-worker became “belligerent” after Trevillion, a lead bridge tender, ...