Word: jobs
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Supreme Court backs job-preference programs for minorities...
...fair to discriminate against whites in order to help the longtime victims of discrimination, notably blacks and other disadvantaged minorities? Last week, ruling in the crucial case of United Steelworkers of America vs. Weber, the U.S. Supreme Court gave an answer. Employers can indeed choose to give special job preference to blacks without fear of being harassed by reverse-discrimination suits brought by other employees. The ruling was a strong endorsement of affirmative-action programs, one that will both protect them from legal assault and spur their expansion...
...year, white, laboratory analyst at a chemical plant in Gramercy, La. He had sued both his employer, the Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp., and the Steelworkers Union in 1974, charging that he had been illegally excluded from a training program for higher paying skilled jobs, such as electrician and repairman, in which half the places were reserved for minorities. Though Weber won in two lower courts, he lost in the high court. By a 5-to-2 vote, the justices ruled that employers can indeed give blacks special preference for jobs that were traditionally all white. Whether...
...gains. Even some white ethnic groups that feel left out in the scramble for economic opportunity, such as Poles, Italians, Ukrainians and Czechs, may interpret Weber as a challenge that they cannot afford to ignore. Warns Leonard Walentynowicz, executive director of the Polish-American Congress: "If America's job opportunities and money are to be parceled out to groups, we are a definable group, and we want our share...
Weber does not say how far an employer can go to give preference to minorities over whites. But to be safe from Weber-type challenges, an affirmative-action program would have to avoid excluding whites altogether, deal with job categories that have traditionally been segregated, and avoid firing whites to make room for blacks. It also must be "temporary." Justice Brennan noted with approval that when the percentage of black skilled workers at the Kaiser plant approximates the percentage of blacks in the local labor force, the program will...