News Article

Big Suits: Keeping Tabs on Coca-Cola

The American Lawyer

Published: May 20, 1999

In Atlanta, the city "too busy to hate," a race discrimination suit is taking some of the fizz out of the world's largest beverage maker. Can The Coca-Cola Company, known for its philanthropic bent in Atlanta's African American community, prove that it's the "Real Thing"?

Originally filed last December, the suit alleges that Gregory Allen Clark, an African American security officer at Coke, had been repeatedly passed up for promotions because of race discrimination. In April, Clark was joined by three other plaintiffs: an administrative assistant who claims that she experienced discrimination in performance evaluations, and two other women who allege that they were paid below their white counterparts. The suit is pending class action status.

Plaintiffs attorney Cyrus Mehri says that the discrimination is "institutionalized. There is a 'glass ceiling' in place preventing talent from rising up regardless of race," says Mehri, who was part of a team of lawyers that wrested a $176 million settlement from Texaco Inc. in its 1997 race discrimination case. African Americans, he says, are underrepresented at high pay levels, and those who rise up the ladder do so in less revenue-generating divisions of the company, such as human resources and community relations. Mehri believes that the class may include as many as 1,500 salaried black employees.

Mehri and his team are still waiting for the suit to gain class action status--but they're not sitting idle. In addition to interviewing potential claimants, Mehri says that they're closely studying Coke's communications with its employees.