The Upper Midwest Law Center (UMLC) has filed lawsuits on behalf of employees of two large companies, Honeywell and Anaplan, who were fired for refusing to take part in Critical Race Theory (CRT) trainings. Chuck Vavra was an engineer at Honeywell and Justin Filip was a product support analyst at Anaplan and both were fired after they made it clear that they disagreed with proponents of CRT that were being pushed on employees.
According to UMLC, “Vavra and Filip are demanding back pay and reinstatement or a damages equivalent and, most importantly, an end to the CRT ‘training’ and the hostile employment environment, retaliation and differential treatment by the employers inherent in such ‘training.’”
Vavra said he was fired because he would not accept the demonization of whites.
He said, “We were terminated because we objected to our employers’ attempt to impose an ideology on us and other employees that demonized whites as all-powerful bad oppressors and demeaned blacks as ‘victims’ without the ability to effectively act in their own interest.”
Vavra said he believes that racism has begun taking place in the opposite regard, where white people have become the inferior race.
“It’s as though blacks were forced to submit to an ideology saying they were inferior and whites were superior. That would be a violation of the civil rights laws and so is the reverse racism inherent in this disgusting CRT ‘training,’” Vavra said.
Doug Seaton, the president of UMLC, and an attorney for one of the men said they are “proud to represent” Vavra and Filip, calling the trainings “racist propaganda.”
“UMLC is proud to represent Chuck Vavra and Justin Filip, who should not have to endure racist propaganda in the workplace or be terminated for objecting to it. Honeywell’s and Anaplan’s actions are illegal and should horrify Minnesotans. We will fight to end this CRT propaganda in private sector work places, just as we have in Minnesota’s schools and government agencies,” Seaton said.
Vavra and Filip believe the trainings they were going to be subjected to were wrong. According to a press release from UMLC, “They simply said that it was improper and a violation of civil rights laws for ‘training’ or official company stances to demonize them for their white race and demean blacks by characterizing them as unable to function in society due to white racism.”
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Hayley Tschetter is a reporter with The Minnesota Sun and The Wisconsin Daily Star | Star News Network. Follow Hayley on Twitter or like her Facebook page. Send news tips to [email protected].
