Sheila White

Floor Speech

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Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, this week marks the 10th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. White. The Court held, unanimously, that workers who stand up against workplace discrimination are entitled to protection against a broad array of retaliatory actions by their employers.

The case, and the vital precedent that it set--that the scope of the Civil Rights Act of 1964's, ``antiretaliation provision extends beyond workplace-related or employment related retaliatory acts and harms''-- would not have been possible but for the courage of my constituent, Sheila White, from Memphis, Tennessee.

In 1997, Ms. White was working as a forklift operator at the Tennessee Yard of Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway. At the time she was the only woman in her department.

Ms. White complained that her supervisor had been sexually harassing her.

The company disciplined her supervisor, but also reassigned Ms. White to a less desirable position.

After Ms. White filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the railway suspended her without pay for more than a month for insubordination.

Ms. White's story is a true profile in courage. Even though the company eventually found that she was not insubordinate, reinstated her and gave her backpay, she nonetheless persisted with her lawsuit to set the record straight. She knew, and the Supreme Court ultimately agreed, that the way she had been treated fell far short of the protections established by Congress in the Civil Rights Act.

As Justice Breyer explained, ``The significance of the congressional judgment that victims of intentional discrimination can recover compensatory and punitive damages to make them whole would be undermined if employers could avoid liability in these circumstances. . . . An indefinite suspension without pay could well act as a deterrent to the filing of a discrimination complaint, even if the suspended employee eventually received backpay.''

As we commemorate the 10th anniversary of this case, I want to publicly thank Ms. White--for her bravery, for her perseverance, and for her continued leadership on behalf of workplace fairness. Our nation is better because of Sheila White.

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