Word: kaiser
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Company spokesmen acknowledge the complaints. But they point to the broad streets, well-tended lawns and gardens and bright modern houses in the new settlements, and note that the complaints usually dwindle when people move into their new homes. Says Willi Kaiser, the burgomaster of Bedburg, which includes the village of Kaster: "In the end people are usually satisfied...
...Kaiser has more reason than most to be satisfied. Though Kaster is perched atop millions of tons of brown gold, the town won landmark status in the mid-1950s because most of its structures date from the 16th century. Under West German practice, that means Kaster probably need never fear the onslaught of Rheinbraun's omnivorous Bagger...
...Kaiser and the Steelworkers agreed to their affirmative-action program voluntarily, notes Yale Law School Professor Bruce Ackerman, but "with the Government looking over their shoulders." Fewer than 2% of the 273 skilled craft workers at the Kaiser plant where Weber works were black, while the surrounding area's work force was 39% black. Discrimination had been shown at two other Kaiser plants in Louisiana, and the company risked losing federal contracts. But Kaiser still insisted in the lower courts that there had been no past discrimination. Why? Because the company did not want to lay itself open to suits...
Last week the court decided to face that issue. It agreed to review the case of Brian Weber, 32, a white employee at the Gramercy, La., plant of Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. who had been rejected by a craft training program that reserved half its places for minorities. Weber sued Kaiser and his union, the United Steelworkers, and won: two federal courts ruled that under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act Kaiser cannot use racial quotas without proof that it discriminated in the past...
...EEOC and the Justice Department want the Weber case sent back so lower courts can reconsider evidence of Kaiser's past discrimination. But Weber, now a $20,000-a-year lab technician at the Kaiser plant, says he is optimistic about winning in the high court. If he does, he may become an even more important symbol than Allan Bakke. Unlike Bakke, who used to duck publicity, Weber says he doesn't mind "the notoriety." A loquacious Cajun and father of three who is fond of fishing, he likes to be photographed in his hard hat. In fact, Weber plans...