Workplace noose leaves employees fearful

A noose found hanging at a Millville, N.J., construction site where two black men from Delaware were working prompted one of the men to not return to work and both to file a complaint with police.

Concerned for his safety, 43-year-old Kyle Winters of New Castle did not return to the work site at Nipro Glass where they are building a furnace. But Vance E. Thorpe Jr., 46, of Wilmington, said he had few options other than to return.

"If I didn't need to work, I would have walked off the job," Thorpe said. "I have a brand new baby. He's 4 months old and I've got to support him."

The men filed a complaint with Millville police Thursday after they said nothing was done at work other than to take it down the following day.

The incident is being investigated, said Lt. Jody Farabella, a spokesman with the Millville police.

"It's listed as a harassment, but it's a potential biased incident here," Farabella said, adding the investigating officer had to do some more followup.

Thorpe said he's still fearful when he's at work.

"I probably won't have a job after this," Thorpe said. "But I just feel I have to say something because you have to stop it somewhere or they're going to continue to do it and do it and then things could get worse.

"Somebody actually could be hurt. Thank God none of us were."

The incident took place Feb. 26 at Nipro Glass where they are working on an industrial furnace for the glass company. Thorpe said he'd returned from lunch and started to pick up a block, when he saw a noose hanging on the wall they were working on.

"At first I didn't want to believe that it was a racial thing and I said 'Well maybe they're getting ready to lift something up with it,' "

He waited a while, but when no one used the noose, let alone touched it, Thorpe said he became offended.

When he pointed the noose out to a fellow laborer who was white, Thorpe said the other man saw it "and just kind of shook it off."

Becoming more uncomfortable with the noose, Thorpe said he sought out Winters, who was driving a forklift and had him look at it.

"It didn't sit good with me either," Winters said. "It was a noose, man. When I think of a noose, I think of a hanging."

There were other minorities at the site, but Winters said the rest of them shrugged it off.

"Me and Vance are the only ones who seemed to care about it," he said. "Because I'm not going to let anybody get away with that. That's crazy. It's 2014. You can't do that at the work site or anywhere."

The morning after it happened, Thorpe and Winters spoke to their supervisor at Access Labor Services, a construction and industrial temporary service out of New Castle.

The men asked to be assigned to another site, but according to Thorpe, the supervisor was unable to because it was under short notice. He asked them to stick it out for another few days, but if there was another incident to leave the job site.

The men's supervisor declined comment when contacted at Access Labor. Calls to the contractor the men were working for, Byers Electrical Construction in Bear, and to Nipro Glass, were not returned.

Karen Sutherland, a Seattle attorney whose practice deals with workplace issues, said she's heard of similar incidents, but did not know how prevalent they are.

"In terms of what to do in such situations, generally speaking, most companies have policies on who to report such incidents to; sometimes, the designated person is an human resources person and not the supervisor," she said.

If the person has already reported to whoever is listed in the policy, assuming there is a policy, then the other options, include making a complaint to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, state or local agencies the person has in the jurisdiction or contacting an attorney or group that protects people's rights.

Neither men were aware of where to complain that day.

When Thorpe returned to work, he spoke to the site foreman. The foreman removed the noose that was still hanging from the wall and asked Thorpe if he knew who had done this.

Thorpe said he'd been told it was one of the bricklayers, who'd started working at the site two days before. After initially defending the bricklayers, the foreman spoke to them only to return to say there was nothing he could do about it, Thorpe said.

That's because no threats were made to Thorpe.

"Because of the fact that they said that they didn't say anything to us, but that noose ... to me is a statement in itself," Thorpe said. "That's just like you burn a cross in my yard. You don't have to say anything to me for me to understand that you're trying to do something to me or threaten me or harm me or get me fearful.

"It's almost like terroristic threatening by throwing that noose over there."

Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.