ST. LOUIS -- Kraft Heinz Food Co. LLC is being sued in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri by a former employee, who alleges racial discrimination at its Kirksville processing plant.
The complaint by Eric Kenner of Laplace, Louisiana, against Kraft Heinz and Allied Reliability Group, which coordinated staffing of the food processing plant, was filed May 9.
Kenner, an African-American man who was employed as a forklift driver and line operator, began working at the plant in July 2017. Among Kenner’s claims is that his line supervisor assigned him “undesirable jobs, criticized him in front of other works, and repeatedly referred to him as 'boy.'” Kenner reportedly tried ignore the harassment, but it continued.
Jase Carter of Carter Law Firm
Kenner claims he then made several complaints to Kraft and Allied supervisors, saying the line supervisor “was behaving in a racist manner, treating him and other African Americans worse than caucasian workers.” He claims the defendants in response reassigned him and another African-American co-worker from the line supervisor’s direct supervision. They were reportedly sent to the Kraft warehouse to drive a forklift.
For his first day working in the warehouse, Kenner reported to the processing plant to wait for his new supervisor, according to the complaint. But Kenner alleges the line supervisor told him that he had to work with him to train his employees. Kenner stayed to help train that day, but when asked to do it again the next day, he told the line supervisor he’d like to speak to human resources before going with him, the suit claims.
The line supervisor reportedly became angry, called Kenner a derogatory name for African-Americans and said “no one leaves his crew without paying a price.” The supervisor escorted Kenner outside, the complaint said.
Kenner walked home and returned to the plant later that morning, but he was told he was terminated, the suit claims. The complaint alleges that the defendants discriminated against Kenner “because of race and retaliated against him for complaining about the discrimination, in violation of Title VII to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
He is being represented by Jase Carter of Carter Law Firm LLC in St. Louis.