It is a fight to level the playing field to be able to compete for jobs and careers on the basis of skills and make available apprentice training to all. In 1973 Al Percy launched a class action lawsuit to give workers like him a chance to better their lot in life. It would also ensure the availability of skilled workers to build the infrastructure of the future.
Who is Al Percy? What is the lawsuit?
A short video follows below. there are also helpful and informative links on this website
Case21-1573, Document 8, 07/12/2021, 3135699, Page18 of 158 supported by the library of the United States Department of Labor and the Library of Congress. This Alternative Employment Practice provides an opportunity to compete for employment based on skills rather than the color of one’s skin or ethnicity. This Alternative Employment Practice was demonstrated to and adopted by the Percy Class to the Employer Defendants, Government Agencies, paragraphs 565 - 593 of Complaint EDNYCase21-cv-01421Document #1, Attachment 6 thereto. Such apprenticeship includes paid on-the-job (“OJT”) training working alongside an experienced worker, fostering transfer of their know-how onto inexperienced interns. The apprentice learns by training, drilling, and practicing, ultimately becoming skilled for a well-paying career. An acceptable apprenticeship program is vigorous and comprehensive, and it takes many years for an apprentice to fulfill these requirements as established by the US Secretary of Labor, The United States Department of Labor through its US Bureau of Apprenticeship Training, New York State Department of Labor. In representing the Percy Class, Mr. Kernan presented the Alternative Employment Practice, under 42 U.S.C. § 2000e–2(k)(1)(A)(ii), to meet the burden of persuasion as the requisite demonstration described in subparagraph (C) as required by 42 U.S.C. § 2000e–2(k)(1)(A)(ii). Mr. Kernan became a certified risk control and return-to-work specialist under New York State Department of Labor Industrial Code Rule 59 & 60 since 1997, a licensed Professional Engineer since 1976, and admitted to practice law in New York since 1977. In 1999, Mr. Kernan was appointed by the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Labor to the Apprenticeship Training Task Force to establish guidelines 16
Case21-1573, Document 8, 07/12/2021, 3135699, Page19 of 158 for classroom instruction in the skilled trades, representing disadvantaged persons in relation to apprenticeship and bonding. Mr. Kernan was appointed by former US Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman as a member of ERISA §3(40) Negotiated Rulemaking Advisory Committee, for the first rulemaking undertaken by the United States Department of Labor Pension & Welfare Benefits Administration. Mr. Kernan was awarded a commendation by Secretary of Labor Herman in April 2000 for his two years of voluntary pro bono work on the Rulemaking Committee, which ultimately resulted in the publication of the ERISA §3(40) Rule. Mr. Kernan received a designation as an Associate in Fidelity & Surety Bonding by the Chartered Property and Casualty Insurance Underwriters Society. LITIGATION OF NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE The Plaintiff Class is a class of black and Spanish surnamed persons as certified in Percy v. Brennan. The Class is made up of disenfranchised persons that will continue to be frustrated despite the many years since the certification of this class, a frustration involving generations who have long ago forgotten the satisfaction and pride of qualifying for a respected occupation, a frustration becoming an even more attenuated problem due to an inability to escape public assistance. The benefits and the Alternative Employment Practice address this chronic problem. Skilled occupations are in constant need of new and experienced personnel able to handle the many changing aspects of the industry, where the range of experience required for workers is always evolving. Continuing education will allow employees to be trained and be up-to-date on new equipment and methods and to be able to handle the day-to-day operations that all can depend upon. The action against the class defendant was composed in good faith to enforce the relief awarded in Percy v. Brennan SDNY 73-cv-04279, which settlement relief failed 17
