Local 2001, AFL-CIO, CLC
INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION
OF PROFESSIONAL AND
TECHNICAL ENGINEERS
Page
Craig Hoobler, standing, talks about being abruptly terminated by Spirit AeroSystems during a press conference at the SPEEA Midwest office July 11. With him in the back row are
former Spirit employees Donetta Raymond, left, and Craig Tolson, right. In front, from left are, SPEEA Midwest Director B.J. Moore, along with attorneys Randy Rathbun, Diane
King and Dan Kohrman.
Former employees sue Spirit
for age discrimination
By Bill Dugovich
SPEEA Communications Director
WICHITA – Prompted from an initial investigation by SPEEA, 24 older employees terminated by Spirit
AeroSystems in July 2013 filed a major age discrimination class-action suit on July 11 in U.S.
District Court.
The plaintiffs, all SPEEA-represented, filed the
lawsuit on behalf of themselves and hundreds of
older employees who worked at the Wichita facility.
The group’s legal team includes attorneys
from AARP Foundation Litigation (AFL), a
Washington D.C.-based component of the
AARP Foundation, the charitable arm of the
nationwide older-people’s organization, AARP.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in
Wichita, alleges Spirit terminated older employees covered by Spirit’s self-funded health insurance
plan, who either had costly medical conditions or
had family members with expensive health issues.
Employee health issues cited in the lawsuit include
heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, hearing loss, brain aneurysm and gout.
“Spirit's treatment of older workers in its July
2013 RIF was unprecedented, unequal and
unlawful,” said AARP Foundation Litigation’s
senior attorney Dan Kohrman at a press confer-
ence after the filing on July 11. “Also, available
data - including some Spirit did provide - show
the company gave a disproportionate share of
experienced workers, age 40+, low performance
ratings, then fired them on that flawed basis.”
The terminations included many employees
who for years had been rated as top perform-
ers, according to the filing. Months before the
terminations, Spirit revised its performance
management and retention processes, resulting
in hundreds of employees receiving significantly
lower ratings. A disproportionate number of the
lower ratings and subsequent designations went
to employees aged 40 and over.
Weeks after the layoffs, Spirit held a job fair in
Wichita and began recruiting and hiring new
workers. According to the suit, the majority of the
new workers – 60 percent – were under age 40.
Although many of the terminated workers later
applied for job openings at Spirit, none were hired.
While 24 former employees are named in the
filing, others are expected to join. Only 36 of
the 200-plus SPEEA members who lost their
jobs were under 40 at the time.
More than a dozen of the former employees
attended a press conference at the Wichita
SPEEA office on July 11 to announce the filing.
Three years after being terminated by Spirit,
Craig Tolson, 60, still found it difficult to talk
about the day he was told he no longer worked
at Spirit and was then ushered out the door.
“I felt blindsided,” said Tolson, a procurement
analyst with 35 years of service at the plant. “I
liked my job. I was good at it. It’s just wrong.
No hope. I was 57. It’s just not fair.”
Craig Hoobler was also caught by surprise
after working in information technology at the
Wichita plant for 34 years.
“I was dedicated to the company,” said Hoobler.
“I did a good job, and I was walked out the door.”
The suit challenges not only the terminations
but also Spirit’s alleged blacklisting of those dis-
charged from new job openings.
“Spirit blackballed the older workers who were fired
in July 2013 while hiring for hundreds of positions over the next few years,” said attorney Diane
King. “This layoff took place just after Spirit went
"self-insured" and right when Spirit itself - not a
health insurance firm - began paying its employees’
medical bills. Spirit clearly had a huge incentive to
fire older workers with medical conditions - like
the plaintiffs - who it assumed would cut into its
bottom line. That was not only wrong, but also a
violation of the plaintiffs' civil rights.”
In addition to the Age Discrimination in
Employment Act (ADEA) claims, some plaintiffs
are bringing claims under the federal Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Family and
Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
First impressions of the national Workforce
Information Advisory Council ................................................ 4
Look for union label when celebrating Labor Day ................. 4
Independent Auditors’ Report and Financial Statements ... 5-9
Wichita activist Bill Hartig retires ....................................... 10
New SPEEA Midwest director ............................................. 10
What’s wrong with the Trans-Pacific Partnership? .............. 10
Ed Wells Partnership: Online series –
100 Years of Boeing Aircraft ................................................ 11
Race for Freedom – Wichita ................................................ 11
Upcoming SPEEA events ..................................................... 11
SPEEA Wichita office moving closer to Spirit AeroSystems... 12
Midwest golf tournament Sept. 17 – Augusta .................... 12
