United States v. Allegheny-Ludlum Industries, Inc.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) (plaintiffs) sued nine major steel companies and the United Steelworkers of America (the steel companies) (defendants), alleging that the industry had violated federal laws by engaging in hiring and job discrimination. The parties settled the lawsuit and entered into two consent decrees that the EEOC considered sufficient to bring the steel companies in compliance with federal law. Consent Decree One required immediate changes in seniority rules, established timetables, and established a back-pay fund for workers injured by discrimination. Consent Decree Two required the companies to implement affirmative-action programs to rectify workplace imbalances. Under the terms of the decrees, the EEOC would review all pending charges and resolves claims not wholly within the scope of the decrees, while recommending that those claims within the decrees accept the back pay. The consent decrees did not bind individual plaintiffs by res judicata, but individuals who accepted back pay gave up their right to sue. Several groups of plaintiffs who had already filed lawsuits moved to intervene and vacate the consent decrees. The groups protested that the EEOC could not release claims of individual employees and that the EEOC had abdicated its statutory duty by entering into the decrees. The groups argued that employees suing individually could get higher back-pay awards than provided by the decrees. The district court held that the groups had no right to intervene and upheld the validity of the consent decrees. The intervenors appealed to the Fifth Circuit.