Civil suit against JBS alleges discrimination
A civil rights attorney has filed a civil lawsuit against JBS USA and officials at the beef plant in Greeley, claiming company officials discriminated against a former human resources supervisor on religious grounds.
Eudoxie “Dunia” Dickey, on behalf of 37-year-old Kacem Andalib, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District court in Denver against JBS USA, Anthony Rickoff, human resources manager for the JBS Greeley beef plant, and Rigo Mendiola, director of human resources for the plant. The suit alleges Rickoff said Andalib was to blame for any problems the company might experience as the result of the “recently enacted Muslim Ban.”
“Rickoff outrageously accused (Andalib) that, ‘It’s all your fault, you freaking terrorists!’ ” court filings read. “Suggesting that (Andalib), a U.S. citizen, and his fellow co-workers were terrorists merely by virtue of his and their perceived or actual religion, race color, ethnicity, ancestry, alienage and/or national origin.”
The filing notes that Rickoff is a non-Muslim white man. When Andalib approached Mendiola about the statement, Mendiola informed Rickoff of the complaint and failed to take any corrective or disciplinary actions, according to the lawsuit. Mendiola then promoted Rickoff in the summer of 2017, making him Andalib’s direct supervisor. According to the suit, Rickoff then began a campaign of retaliation.
Andalib applied for the human resources manager position in early May 2017. Andalib was first hired at the JBS beef plant in Greeley in October 2014, after working in the meat production industry. According to Dickey, Andalib came to the United States when he was 19 and attended Prairie View A&M University in Texas, where he graduated with a 4.0 gradepoint average.
Employees at the beef plant in Greeley speak about 36 languages, according to court documents. Dickey said Andalib is fluent in five languages. According to the filing, Rickoff, hired in early 2017, is fluent only in English.
Andalib eventually made a formal complaint about Rickoff’s retaliatory efforts to Mendiola, who forwarded the complaint to corporate. Aside from an interview with corporate, the filing reads, officials “failed to meaningfully investigate, discipline or take any corrective action whatsoever.”