Buffalo Steel Plant to Pay $360K After Years of Racist Abuse and Ignored Complaints

A Buffalo-based steel galvanizing company, Frontier Hot-Dip Galvanizing, has agreed to pay $360,000 and implement sweeping changes to its workplace policies to resolve a federal lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The suit, filed in 2016, alleged that Black and Haitian employees endured more than a decade of racial slurs, hostile graffiti, and physical intimidation without meaningful response from management.

Two workers, Johnny Mitchell and Jean Basquin, were central to the case. Mitchell, who started at Frontier in 2012, described being repeatedly called racist and homophobic slurs like “ni—er,” “monkey,” and “fa—ot.” When he reported the abuse, management allegedly did little. After a confrontation with a coworker, Mitchell was fired—his supervisor allegedly shouted, “I’m going to kill you, ni—er!” as he terminated him.

Basquin, a Haitian employee hired in 2008, was subjected to offensive comments and threats by Superintendent Michael Oshirak, who accused him of being a terrorist and made monkey noises at him. Despite holding a green card, Basquin was told to “go back to Africa” and faced retaliation after filing a complaint with the EEOC.

Racist graffiti filled common areas with slurs, death threats, Confederate flags, and swastikas. “Employees and supervisors calling their Black colleagues ‘ni–ers’ and ‘coons’... was so commonplace that most thought it futile to complain,” the EEOC argued.

Though Frontier denied all allegations and claimed it had policies in place since 2015, the EEOC found those policies to be ineffective. One deposition revealed that even after being reprimanded for using a slur, Oshirak believed he’d “simply be given another warning” if caught again.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Vilardo denied Frontier’s attempt to dismiss the case in 2024. A trial was scheduled for August 2025, but the parties reached a settlement beforehand. The consent decree requires Frontier to revise its anti-discrimination procedures, train all staff, and establish an independent EEO hotline. Oshirak must complete six hours of one-on-one training.

“Enduring race and national origin-based harassment is not and should not be a condition of employment,” said EEOC attorney Kimberly Cruz. Though denying wrongdoing, Frontier said settling avoids the “unsustainable financial burden” of further litigation.

Link: Atlanta Black Star