Discrimination Lawsuit Alleges Hostile Work Environment at Woodgrain Facility in Colorado

Seven former employees sued Woodgrain Inc., alleging racial discrimination. In a filing in the District Court of Colorado, the employees claim they were “discharged from their employment just weeks after signing a petition complaining of race-based discrimination” at the company’s production facility in Aurora, Colorado.

Woodgrain offers windows and exterior doors designed for various applications, including residential, commercial and architectural projects. In December 2023, it acquired TrimCo Millwork, which had production facilities in Idaho, Utah and Aurora. According to court documents, four of the seven former employees had worked at the Aurora facility before the Woodgrain acquisition. At the time of the acquisition, nearly all the Aurora facility’s non-management workforce was either Black or Hispanic.

In response to a diminishing workplace environment following the acquisition, the seven former employees signed an open letter at the turn of the new year, alleging “discriminatory pay, hiring and promotion practices wherein Black and Brown employees at Woodgrain’s Aurora facility earned less and had fewer opportunities than their white counterparts.”

The former employees say the company failed to take disciplinary or other remedial action after a White supervisor allegedly referred to three of the plaintiffs in what they say were “blatantly racist” terms. A day after submitting their letter, the former employees allege the company’s human resources (HR) director warned them not to discuss the petition. Two weeks later, they were called into a meeting with the HR director, who told them that the company “would not tolerate any further ‘drama’” at the facility. According to court documents, all seven were dismissed by the end of January 2025.

Culture Change

In the court documents, the former employees allege that a new general manager “began talking openly about wanting to change the ‘culture’ at the Aurora facility.” However, the employees were unclear about what that meant. They now allege that, to the general manager, “changing the culture meant, at least in part, replacing [Black] employees with White employees.”

The former employees say that the general manager began hiring young, inexperienced White employees in identical positions to long-tenured Black and Hispanic employees. Furthermore, they allege that many of the new White employees at the Aurora facility earned more than their Black and Hispanic counterparts.

“When Black employees, including plaintiffs, would complain to [the general manager] about pay disparity, [the general manager] would simply respond that if the employees did not like it, they could find a new place to work,” the complaint contends. The former employees further claim that long-tenured Black employees were passed over for promotions, alleging that open positions were instead filled by new hires, all of whom are White.

Court documents outlined specific examples about individual plaintiffs, including one who attempted to vie for the role of operations manager, only to be told that the company had lost his application for the position. The man hired for the position became the direct supervisor for three of the plaintiffs and had a supervisory role over two others. According to court documents, the supervisor, who is White, began showing contempt for the long-tenured Black employees … and “made little attempt to hide his racial animus.”

Failure to Report

When the former employees took their concerns to the general manager, they felt he protected the new supervisor and attempted to rationalize his comments, describing his statements as a poor choice of words. They were then assured the situation had been handled, but they claim that HR had not been informed of the incident. They contend the general manager violated Woodgrain’s policies regarding workplace harassment by failing to report the conduct to Woodgrain’s HR department.

In December 2024, one of the former employees drafted an open letter regarding the discriminatory conditions Black employees allege they were experiencing at the Aurora facility. According to court documents, it was signed by 21 primarily Black and Hispanic employees from that location.

Woodgrain’s Response

Woodgrain’s response to the letter was issued to all employees at the Aurora facility, indicating that the letter surprised the HR department, the former employees allege. The company announced it would launch an investigation into the allegations. According to court documents, company officials recommended that employees avoid all forms of excessive or disruptive gossip that might disparage Woodgrain.

The former employees claim that, after the company’s response, they and their non-White counterparts were subject to increased scrutiny. When an official HR investigation began at the Aurora facility, the former employees were interviewed with either the general manager or the supervisor in the room.

Ultimately, the HR investigation ended in a meeting, during which the HR director reportedly acknowledged that there had been problems at the facility and that she had come to Aurora to hit the reset button. The plaintiffs say she “instructed employees that Woodgrain’s focus from that date forward would be on employee productivity and performance, that no drama would be tolerated and that employees who failed to get on board would be ‘taken care of.’”

In April, the former employees filed Charges of Discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In May, EEOC issued Notices of Right to Sue for all seven discrimination charges.

Woodgrain denies much of what the plaintiffs allege. Both sides request a jury trial.