Former Founders Employee Files Racial Discrimination Lawsuit

From Detroit Eater:

A former employee at Founders Brewing Company in Grand Rapids and Detroit has filed a lawsuit against the brewery alleging racial discrimination. In his filing, first reported by Metro Times, the employee Tracy Evans characterizes the company work culture as toxic and superiors as failing to adequately address racially behavior by employees.

The suit, filed on August 22 in the U.S. District Court in Eastern Michigan, claims that Evans “received unequal treatment, was denied a promotion, and was ultimately terminated based on his race and in retaliation for complaints regarding his treatment.” Founders has denied the allegations.

Evans, who is black, worked at both the Grand Rapids and Detroit locations of Founders beginning in approximately 2014. He got his start at the brewery as a packaging machine manager and was the events and promotions manager at the Detroit taproom at the time of his firing in June 2018. During his time in Grand Rapids, Evans claims that he encountered “blatantly racist” behavior by management. In one instance, the complaint alleges that Founders employees named the facility’s upstairs management printer the “white guy printer” and the downstairs general employee printer the “black guy printer.” Attorneys for the company denied the allegations regarding the naming of the printers in Founders’ response to the complaint….