A federal judge has approved a $6.2 million settlement for black and Hispanic sheet metal workers in a 37-year-old lawsuit against a union that critics have called one of the city?s most notorious for racial discrimination, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced on Tuesday. Judge Robert L. Carter of Federal District Court in Manhattan approved the settlement last week in a lawsuit that charged Local 28 of the Sheet Metal Workers with failing to provide equal employment opportunities. The settlement is a major step toward ending the suit, in which the federal court had found Local 28 in contempt on four occasions over two decades for repeatedly failing to comply with orders to end discriminatory practices.
See "Settlement in Bias Suit That Stalled for 37 Years", Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times, January 15, 2008