Seven former Black employees at Woodgrain, Inc., a global wood products manufacturer, allege in a federal lawsuit that they were fired after complaining about racial slurs and discriminatory treatment at the company’s Aurora, Colorado, plant.
In their lawsuit filed on May 21 in U.S. District Court in Colorado (and obtained by Atlanta Black Star), the plaintiffs say that their workplace took on a racially hostile atmosphere after Idaho-based Woodgrain, which has $900 million in annual revenues, acquired Trimco Millwork in Aurora in December 2023 and brought in a new general manager, Steven Nybo.
Nybo, who is white, began talking about wanting to “change the culture” at the facility, the lawsuit says, where most of the non-management employees were Black or Hispanic. For Nybo, that meant replacing African-American employees with years of experience with white employees who had little or no experience in door and wood molding manufacturing, the plaintiffs allege.
While long-tenured African-American and Hispanic employees earned $20 or $21 per hour, Woodgrain paid new white employees more, the complaint says. One white man who had no prior experience in door or trim processing was hired with a starting wage of $25 per hour, prompting complaints about pay disparity among Black employees, who also alleged they were denied opportunities for promotions and that all open positions were being filled by white applicants…