Race Discrimination Lawyer for Macomb County
You had the seniority and the test score, and the apprenticeship went to someone with neither. Or the slurs on your line were “just how the shop talks” until you reported them, and then you were the one written up.
Can a Macomb County employer do that? The one-sentence test: if the difference between you and the coworker who got the slot or kept the job is race, or the trouble started after you complained, and you have paper or witnesses, you may have a case. The evaluation is a free 15-minute call, and termination cases are handled on contingency. The first deadline is the EEOC’s 300 days for Title VII; Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Act runs three years and 42 U.S.C. § 1981 runs four. The statewide race discrimination and retaliation page explains the statutes. This page is about Macomb County.
How race discrimination cases look in Macomb County
Macomb County still builds things, and the race case follows the shape of the work: classifications, shifts, seniority, and a supervisor with discretion over who gets what.
The apprenticeship or the lead job that went to someone junior
At the GM Global Technical Center in Warren, Stellantis Warren Truck and Sterling Heights Assembly, and Ford’s Sterling Axle plant, the path into skilled trades runs through an application, a test, and a selection supposed to follow the contract. When the slot goes to a lower-seniority applicant with a lower score, more than once, the selection process is the case. So are team-lead and setup roles handed out by the supervisor. The evidence is your application and score, the posting, who was selected and their seniority, and any explanation given.
The temp who never gets hired in at a supplier
The Van Dyke and Groesbeck corridors and the industrial parks in Shelby Township run on staffing-agency labor. The pattern is a temp who does the job for eighteen months and watches later arrivals get hired in while the agency says “not yet.” Both the agency and the plant can be liable, and § 1981 has no employer-size floor, which matters at a 40-person shop. The evidence is your start date, the conversion dates of those hired ahead of you, and every message about your status.
Slurs over the radio and the supervisor who heard them
On a line at a Macomb County plant or a defense contractor like General Dynamics Land Systems in Sterling Heights, race-based remarks over the radio or at the break table pass as shop talk until someone objects. When a supervisor or team lead heard it, the company is on notice whether or not you filed a form. When you objected and then drew your first discipline in years, that is retaliation on top of harassment. The evidence is who said what, who heard it, and the discipline record before and after.
Floated, written up, and gone at a hospital
At Henry Ford Macomb in Clinton Township, McLaren Macomb in Mount Clemens, and Ascension Macomb-Oakland in Warren, the usual version is a nurse or tech who complained about a charge nurse’s comments, was floated to the hardest unit every shift afterward, written up for a refusal others make weekly, and terminated on the third write-up. The evidence is the float assignments before and after, and the coworkers who refused the same float unpunished. If you were let go after complaining, read fired after an HR complaint.
The law that applies
Three statutes, plus a separate process for federal civilians.
Title VII covers employers with 15 or more employees. It requires an EEOC charge within 300 days, filed through the Detroit Field Office, and caps compensatory and punitive damages at $50K–$300K by employer size. It covers race, color, and national origin, and retaliation for reporting any of them.
42 U.S.C. § 1981 prohibits race and ethnicity discrimination in making and enforcing contracts, and courts treat an at-will job as a contract for that purpose. No size floor, no agency step, no damages cap, a four-year limitations period, but-for causation. For a temp at a small supplier or a worker who missed the 300 days, this is often the statute that keeps the case alive.
Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, MCL 37.2101, covers employers with one or more employees, needs no agency filing, gives three years, and puts no cap on emotional-distress damages. Retaliation is its own violation under MCL 37.2701, and under Elezovic v. Ford Motor Co., 472 Mich 408 (2005), the supervisor can be sued individually.
Federal civilian employees at TACOM and the Detroit Arsenal follow none of that. They must contact an agency EEO counselor within 45 days of the discriminatory act, or the claim usually dies. Contractor employees at General Dynamics or a supplier are private employees under the ordinary rules.
The Macomb County trap is the grievance. Workers let it run for a year and assume the lawsuit can wait. The EEOC’s 300 days do not pause for step three. The Michigan employment claim deadlines page lists every clock.
| Claim | Who’s covered | Deadline | Damages |
|---|---|---|---|
| ELCRA (Michigan) | Employers with 1+ employees; individual supervisors in some cases | 3 years, direct to circuit court | Back pay, front pay, uncapped emotional distress, attorney fees |
| Title VII | 15+ employees; race, color, national origin | EEOC charge within 300 days, then suit | Back pay; compensatory and punitive capped at $50K–$300K |
| 42 U.S.C. § 1981 | Any employer, including staffing agencies; race and ethnicity | 4 years, no agency step | Back pay, uncapped compensatory and punitive, attorney fees |
Where your Macomb County race discrimination case gets filed
An ELCRA-only case files in the Macomb County Circuit Court, the 16th Judicial Circuit, at 40 N. Main Street in Mount Clemens, with a county jury. Add a Title VII or § 1981 count and the employer may remove the case to the Eastern District of Michigan at the Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse, 231 W. Lafayette Boulevard, Detroit.
For a plant worker the choice usually turns on the evidence. A disparate-discipline case built on comparator records suits a Macomb County jury that knows what a labor-relations file looks like, and ELCRA’s uncapped emotional-distress damages fit it. Severe harassment that the employer ignored may justify § 1981’s uncapped punitive damages and the federal courthouse. The Macomb County employment lawyer page covers the jury pool and venue. An engineer from Warren, an assembler from Sterling Heights, and a nurse from Clinton Township file in the same two buildings.
Skilled trades and the contract: what the CBA decides and what it does not
Most Macomb County plant workers who call me have heard that “the contract controls.” It controls some things. The discipline schedule, the apprenticeship test, and the seniority rules are in the collective bargaining agreement, and the grievance procedure enforces them.
The contract does not decide who gets written up. If two workers leave the line early and one gets a verbal warning while the other gets a three-day suspension, the schedule was followed both times and the discrimination question is untouched. A last-chance agreement signed after a disparate write-up does not waive a discrimination claim about it.
What the contract can do is push a pure contract-interpretation claim, such as bumping rights, out of court and into arbitration. Sorting the statutory claim from the contract claim is my first task with a union member’s file. Keep every grievance form and answer and the labor-relations file the union gets; those documents usually contain the comparators. File the grievance. It does not cost you the lawsuit.
What to do in the first 72 hours
- Forward yourself the evidence tonight. Your discipline history, the application and score for the slot you lost, the texts with the remarks, your complaint and the reply, and the termination paper, to a personal account before your badge dies.
- Write down the comparators. The coworker who left early and got a warning, the junior applicant who got the apprenticeship, the temp converted ahead of you, with names and dates.
- Put the complaint in writing if it was only spoken. An email to labor relations naming the remarks and saying you believe the treatment is because of your race makes the retaliation claim provable.
- Request your personnel file. Michigan’s Bullard-Plawecki Employee Right to Know Act requires production on written request, and the file should include the labor-relations discipline record.
- Do not sign a severance or last-chance agreement without advice. One releases your claims; the other can be drafted to try.
- Do not quit to escape the line. A resignation makes this a constructive-discharge case, which is harder to prove, and can cost you unemployment.
Macomb County race discrimination questions
I was passed over for a skilled-trades apprenticeship at a Macomb County plant for someone with less seniority and a lower test score. Is that a race case?
It can be. Apprenticeship selection is supposed to follow posted criteria, and when a lower-scoring, lower-seniority applicant outside your race is chosen, the employer has to explain why. If the explanation shifts, was never applied to the person selected, or does not match the contract’s criteria, that is evidence of pretext. Keep your application, your score, the posting, and the seniority dates of those selected.
Coworkers on my line in Sterling Heights use slurs and the supervisor laughs it off. Is the company liable if I never filed a written complaint?
Often, yes. An employer is liable for coworker harassment when it knew or should have known and failed to act, and a supervisor who heard the remarks is the company knowing. A written complaint is not required for liability, but it is the best proof of notice and the foundation of a retaliation claim if things get worse. Send one now and note who said what and who was present.
I am a temp through a staffing agency at a Macomb County supplier. Who do I sue for race discrimination?
Potentially both. The staffing agency is your employer, and the plant that controlled your assignments, your discipline, and the decision not to convert you can be liable as a joint employer. Section 1981 reaches both regardless of size, and ELCRA covers any employer with one employee. Keep your start date, the conversion dates of workers hired in ahead of you, and every message about your status.
I was moved to a worse shift and line after I complained to labor relations, but my pay stayed the same. Is that retaliation?
It can be. Retaliation covers any action that would deter a reasonable worker from complaining, and a transfer to a harder job, a worse shift, or a line with no overtime qualifies without a pay cut. The Supreme Court held in 2024 that a discriminatory transfer needs only some harm, not a significant one. Save the schedules and assignments before and after the complaint.
Should I file my Macomb County race complaint with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights instead of the EEOC?
Either agency works for the federal claim, because the two share filings, but the EEOC gives you 300 days and the MDCR expects a complaint within 180. Neither is required for an ELCRA or Section 1981 lawsuit, which can go straight to court. What matters is that the Title VII charge is on file within 300 days. Past that, ELCRA and Section 1981 usually remain.
Talk to a race discrimination lawyer who takes Macomb County cases
If you were passed over, disciplined harder, harassed, or fired because of your race at a Macomb County plant, hospital, or defense contractor, or punished for reporting it, call (313) 701-2448 or schedule a free 15-minute case evaluation. I will tell you whether the comparators and timing make a case and which deadline is closest.
Warren Astbury. Harvard Law School, J.D. 2009. Fifteen years in practice, more than 50 cases tried to verdict, employee-side only. Another county? See the race discrimination pages for Wayne County, Oakland County, and Washtenaw County.