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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

High court ruling is a boon for workers in towns where one employer dominates, activists say

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling yesterday is good news for "small towns with one dominant employer where many relatives and spouses work," supporters of the decision told Andrew Wolfson of The Courier-Journal of Louisville.

North American Stainless, which employs 1,150 people in the small Ohio River town of Ghent in Carroll County, Kentucky, fired Eric Thompson in 2003, less than four weeks after his fiance filed a sex-discrimination claim against the company. The high court, reversing lower courts, ruled 8-0 that "companies can't fire people simply because they are in a relationship with other employees who complain of discrimination," Jesse Holland writes for The Associated Press.

Thompson's lawsuit against the steel company can now go to trial. The sex-discrimination claim of his finace, now his wife, was dismissed. For Wolfson's story, click here.

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