A former Black UPS driver was awarded $238 million by a jury in Yakima, Washington, last week for damages he suffered in a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination and a hostile work environment at the international delivery company.
In their verdict, the jury found that the conduct of UPS violated plaintiff Tahvio Gratton’s state and federal rights and awarded him $198 million in punitive damages and $39.6 million for emotional distress, humiliation, pain, and suffering.
Gratton, who is Black, claimed that he faced racial harassment soon after he transferred to the Yakima UPS center in 2018 and that he faced ongoing racially discriminatory treatment and retaliation from his supervisors after complaining about it, ultimately leading to his unlawful firing in 2021.
In his complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington in 2022, Gratton claimed he was frequently “laid off” for the day while white drivers with less seniority were given routes to drive, in violation of union rules. He also said he was given less desirable routes and trucks than other drivers.
A manager, Sam O’Rourke, who is white, repeatedly referred to him as “Boy,” Gratton alleged, including one day when O’Rourke accompanied him on a “ride along” to observe his performance.
Throughout the day, Gratton said the supervisor barked orders at him and made demeaning comments, such as “Move faster, Boy, let’s go!” and “I didn’t tell you to talk, boy,” an allegation backed up by a staffer at a Footlocker store who received deliveries Gratton made that day and witnessed how O’Rourke treated him.
When Gratton told him to stop calling him “Boy,” O’Rourke replied, “I’m from the South. That’s how I talk,” and continued to call him “Boy” throughout the day. Once back at the center, Gratton complained to manager Erik Loomis, who responded dismissively, “That’s just how he talks.”
This caused Gratton to be humiliated, and he said he broke down crying in his car before driving home that day.
Gratton filed complaints with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union and the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission in 2018 and more grievances with the union in 2020 and 2021, alleging race-based harassment and unfair treatment in his work assignments that were in violation of union rules and state and federal law.
Initially, those complaints included racist verbal abuse and being assigned to a “mall route” with heavier, bulkier package pick-up volume, which took longer to complete than preferred business and residential routes, which he said were regularly given to white and part-time workers with less seniority.
Later, Gratton claimed that he and other Black drivers were overloaded with out-of-the-way pick-up stops and then unfairly reprimanded for taking too long to complete them. Black drivers were also allegedly singled out for reprimands for small infractions such as having visible tattoos, long hair, or wearing a sweater, while white drivers who did those things were not.
Gratton claimed that by 2021, his supervisors were targeting him for discipline because of his race and in retaliation for his becoming a union shop steward and helping other Black employees file grievances. He claimed that Loomis frequently withheld his checks and that he had to file complaints with the union to recover withheld wages.
Another Black employee testified that a supervisor referred to the plaintiff as “that n—er Tahvio,” according to court records.
Gratton said his UPS managers “repeatedly tried to concoct false reasons to terminate his employment.”
He was fired on Oct. 27, 2021, following allegations of sexual harassment against him alleged to have occurred on Oct. 19, 2021, according to the judge’s order on a motion for summary judgment filed in April 2024.
U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice noted in his order that the accounts of the plaintiff and his witnesses about the kind of contact Gratton made with a female UPS employee conflicted with those offered by UPS.
Gratton said he tripped walking down the belt in the loading dock of a warehouse and reached out to steady himself on the back of nearby load supervisor Linda Hernandez Cruz, who responded by telling him, “You touched me inappropriately.”
Cruz recounted that she was bent over sorting packages when Gratton came up behind her and “grabbed her lower hip.”
Other employees variously said they saw Gratton grab her “bottom hip” or that they saw him stumble and brace himself on her back as he had described. After an investigation, UPS management determined there had been some deliberate “unwanted contact” and an “unprovoked assault” in violation of union rules, and Gratton was fired.
At the time of his order in April, Rice found some merit in Gratton’s assertion that he was wrongfully terminated due to a claim of sexual assault manufactured by UPS as a pretext to fire him due to racial biases and as retaliation for speaking out. He denied the defendant’s bid for summary judgment on that basis, ruling the case should proceed to trial.
In April, Rice also ruled that racial remarks by UPS employees did not create an actionable claim for a hostile work environment “as they were dispersed in time and only occurred on a handful of occasions.”
The jury who heard the case in September saw it differently, finding in their whopping $238 million verdict that Gratton had proved racial discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful discharge claims and that the conduct of UPS was “malicious, oppressive or in reckless disregard of his rights.”
“We thank the jury for seeing the truth, vindicating our client’s rights, and sending a powerful message to UPS that our communities will not tolerate racial discrimination, harassment, or retaliation against the victims of discrimination and harassment,” attorney Dustin Collier, one of the lawyers who represented Gratton, told Bloomberg News.
UPS attorneys said they plan to appeal the case based on a number of evidentiary and legal errors.
“We are disappointed with the jury’s decision but respect the process and the deliberations of the jury,” said Glenn Zaccara, a spokesperson for UPS.
Zaccara said the company takes all the issues addressed in the lawsuit very seriously, Bloomberg reported. He added that UPS has retaliation prevention policies in place and maintains that its former driver was fired for an unprovoked assault on a female coworker.