[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 7]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 9850]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              SHEILA WHITE

                                  _____
                                 

                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 22, 2016

  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.

                          ____________________