The company stepped up its minority recruiting, gave managers sensitivity training and for the next seven years must report its progress to a federal judge. Publix set up an internal complaint process for minorities to air grievances. Employees now periodically register their interest in career paths so managers know what training employees want. Publix ended an unwritten policy under which only the bosses' hand-picked favorites learned of job openings. That included big changes in promotion and hiring. It defends its track record, noting the company already agreed in earlier settlements to establish methods to make sure minorities get fair treatment. Company officials say the whole case is just about money. The company figured the widespread publicity about Lyons' other problems would only draw more media attention to the discrimination case, already a public relations nightmare for the grocer. Publix backed off its investigation of the church's role and financial links to the food workers union. The church, a leading participant in a union news conference announcing the lawsuit, has been rocked by its own scandals about Lyons' financial dealings, including how much money he gets for corporate endorsements. This battle has even prompted Publix to try to subpoena the financial records of the National Baptist Convention USA, an African-American church headed by the Rev. "We train our people to avoid process servers," said Greg Denier, spokesman for the union. Publix paid a process server to stake out the field organizer's Palatka home for three days without successfully serving a subpoena. Indeed, a union field organizer coached several of the plaintiffs in writing their complaints, some of which were clearly embellished. The union plays a big role in the lawsuits. Publix believes this is yet another tactic by the United Commercial and Food Workers Union, a labor group that has been fighting with Publix over its non-union stores in the union's Atlanta stronghold.
Publix, for instance, is trying to get the plaintiffs' attorneys thrown out for unethical behavior because they used a union to recruit clients. Inside them are several sideshows to the main event. The stack of pleadings alone is 28 inches tall. And this battle is every bit as contentious as the earlier cases. Lewis' experience illustrates how discrimination cases are rarely clear cut. The second settled a gender and racial bias investigation by the U.S. One was a sex discrimination class-action suit filed on behalf of 160,000 current former female store employees. This one was filed just four months after Publix paid $85-million to resolve two others. It's the third high-profile, class-action discrimination case to confront Publix since 1995. It's a case that has again put the inner workings of the nation's seventh-largest supermarket chain under a microscope. Lewis is one of 13 African-Americans suing Publix in a massive discrimination case headed for a critical class certification hearing Jan. He deems Publix a racist company where managers were out to get him. But he insisted under oath that he was "coerced" into confessing to a theft he did not commit. Lewis, who is married, later admitted in a deposition to the affair. Besides, Publix accused Lewis of bouncing checks and denying that he had an affair with a subordinate. Publix tells a very different story: Lewis was fired because he stole $500 from the company. He believes his dismissal was a matter of race. He was demoted, then fired, ending a five-year career at Publix.
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