Fired for Bias Complaint, 2 Rockwell Engineers Say

Two industrial engineers who were told they were fired from their jobs at Rockwell International for lying on their job applications say they were actually dismissed because they filed a federal complaint against the company for racial discrimination.

Calvin Green, 42, and Johnnie Pulley, 43, were fired from Rockwell International's Palmdale plant in November, 1983. Green and Pulley, who are black, claim that they were fired because they complained about racial discrimination by their supervisor and filed a grievance with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

In a civil trial in San Fernando Superior Court scheduled to start today, Pulley and Green are seeking compensatory and punitive damages for wrongful termination and the racial discrimination they say they experienced at Rockwell.

Rockwell attorneys have argued that the company had a right to fire the two because they inflated their salaries at Boeing Industries on their Rockwell job applications.