WHEREAS:

            The Civil Rights Act of 1991 was passed to overturn several controversial U.S. Supreme Court decisions that made it more difficult for employees to prove discriminatory employment practices. One of the more controversial decisions was Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Antonio; and

WHEREAS:

            The Civil Rights Act of 1991 contains an unfair provision that exempts the original plaintiffs in Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Antonio, the only excluded group of workers, from coverage under the Act; and

WHEREAS:

            The evidence of discrimination by Wards Cove included the requirement that its workers wear racially coded identification tags for the purpose of maintaining racial segregation in bunkhouses, mess halls and job categories; and

WHEREAS:

            There is no justification for the special interest provision extended to the Wards Cove Packing Company. Two thousand Asian Pacific Americans and Native Alaskans who challenged Wards Cove Packing Company's discriminatory employment practices were singled out and left unprotected in the Civil Rights Act of 1991; and

WHEREAS:

            The exclusion of the employees involved in Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Antonio relegates Asian Pacific Americans and Native Alaskans to second-class citizenship.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

            That AFSCME supports legislation to overturn the exclusion of the original plaintiffs in Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Antonio from coverage tinder the Civil Rights Act of 1991.

SUBMITTED BY:    

Odessa Powell, President and Delegate
Elizabeth Studdivant, Vice President & Delegate
AFSCME Local 389, Council 1707
New York

Herman Gilman, President and Delegate 
Peggy Lytle, Recording Secretary 
AFSCME Local 304, Council 28 
Washington