¶ … Welding Test

Bechtel Power Corporation's Use of Objective Welding Tests

Did the company attempt to help Ligons maintain and upgrade his welding competence?

Charles Ligons, an African-American, was a welder for Bechtell Power Corporation at the Iowa Electric Light and Power Duane Arnold Energy Center construction site for one week before he was required to report to the test shop for training and testing. The reason he was asked to do so was because he had been observed by a welding engineer as having improperly prepared a weld. Even though he had passed a test qualifying him under at-LH to perform heliarc welding before coming to Bechtel, Ligon failed the same test after training for a week. He therefore was not qualified to work in the position for which he was hired, that of welding at an at-LH level. Obviously, the position for which he was hired was then left unfilled for 18 months, the amount of time he worked for them as a simple welder.

When Ligon was laid off, 58 other welders, all white, were also laid off. This does not show discrimination, as Ligon represented the proper percentage, according to African-American population statistics. When he was rehired in September, he received a month of training and again failed to pass the test standardized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Code, for at-LH welding again. When he was laid off after four months, along with five other welders, he had never passed the test Bechtel had designed for high level welders to qualify for the at-LH welding level.

It appears that Bechtel corporation was conscientiously trying to train Ligon to maintain and upgrade his welding competence, as he was trained for four more weeks than other employees (five weeks in all), and was allowed to take the test twice.

Bechtel did not deliberately discriminate against him in testing, as the test was standardized and every welder in the company, African-American or white, had to pass it. The test was designed according to objective criteria that tested welders on various types of welding work in order to place them into categories, and Ligon did not qualify for the at-LH level. He was not fired because he was being discriminated against because of race, as more whites were fired (both times Ligon was fired) than African-Americans, in his category.