A lawsuit seeking class action status alleges black job candidates were passed over in favor of Hispanic workers at two Chicago-area bakeries that hired through staffing agencies to hide the discriminatory practices.

The Chicago Tribune reports:

A lawsuit seeking class action status alleges black job candidates were passed over in favor of Hispanic workers at two Chicago-area bakeries that hired through staffing agencies to hide the discriminatory practices.

The lawsuit, filed Monday afternoon in Chicago federal court, alleges that systemic racial discrimination occurred from 2014 through early 2018 at the Cloverhill industrial baking factories in Chicago’s Galewood neighborhood on the Northwest Side and in west suburban Cicero, which at the time were owned by Swiss parent company Aryzta.


Aryzta in February sold the Galewood bakery to Hostess Brands for about $25 million and the Cicero plant to Bimbo Bakeries for an undisclosed sum.

The lawsuit names as defendants Aryzta and two staffing agencies, Labor Network and Metro Staffing Service. Hostess and Bimbo are not named in the lawsuit.


The attorney behind the lawsuit, Christopher Williams, has filed numerous racial discrimination claims against Chicago companies that use temporary staffing firms. A suit he brought against Ferrara Candy resulted in a $1.54 million settlement in 2016 for a class of African-Americans who applied and were denied by the company over a period of six years.

The plaintiff in the new suit, Anthony Stewart, who is black, alleges that Aryzta conspired with Labor Network and Metro Staffing to weed out African-American workers seeking assignments at the bakeries.

No word on this story from Comrade Sanders, Comrade Harris , or Comrade Booker.