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Four join EEOC suit against grocer

By Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 5, 2007 at 12:05 a.m.

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Four minority employees have been added to a federal lawsuit against grocer Albertsons, claiming they were subject to racial slurs, swastikas and pictures of lynchings while working at a distribution center in Aurora.

One employee, who is Hispanic, said he heard supervisors say "andele, andele" - Spanish for "hurry up" - into a company loudspeaker. A black man claims he and other blacks were called the N-word, along with names like "cotton picker," and told "the only good blacks or Hispanics were dead ones."

They also say they were discriminated against in work assignments and disciplinary actions because of their race.

A spokeswoman for Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons LLC, an investor group that acquired the company's Colorado operations from Albertsons Inc. in 2006, did not return phone calls Tuesday. The company previously has said that the allegations occurred before its acquisition but that it takes the complaints seriously.

In court documents, the company also said the allegations are "isolated, accidental or sporadic" acts. Supervisors investigated many of the allegations when they occurred, the company said.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the lawsuit last year on behalf of another employee, Matthew Ricks.

The suit accuses Albertsons of a pattern of harassment dating to at least 1995. It seeks financial damages for employees as well as changes in company policies.

According to court filings in the case, Albertsons in 2001 settled a gender discrimination lawsuit filed in Denver by the EEOC for $1.45 million. The company also agreed to spend $20,000 on outreach programs in metro-area high schools.

Albertsons LLC has 10 stores in the Denver area, according to the company's Web site. In the past year, it has closed 17 stores and sold the vacant buildings to a private real estate investment company headed by the owners of Argonaut Liquors in Denver.