KFDA - NewsChannel 10 / Amarillo, TX: newschannel10.comCourt: Texas company unfair to black workers
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Associated Press - October 20, 2009 2:35 PM ET
LUFKIN, Texas (AP) - State historical markers outside the headquarters of Lufkin Industries Inc. tell how the company started repairing sawmill equipment at the turn of the 20th century and grew to make many of the pumps dotting the world's oil fields.
But a different history has been written in a class-action lawsuit winding to a close.
More than a thousand of the company's current and former black employees stand to divvy up $5.5 million in back pay and interest as compensation for what a federal judge in June called the company's unlawful discrimination in awarding promotions.
While each worker will get a relatively modest sum, those who brought the lawsuit see the award as validation of their struggle for equality in a region often associated with racial turmoil.
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