Craig Daily Press / Craig hotel accused of racial discrimination against whites

Archive for Tuesday, October 4, 2011

John Ingold/The Denver Post

October 4, 2011, 11:10 a.m.

Updated: October 5, 2011, 12:00 a.m.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed suit on behalf of three fired white workers against the owners of a Craig hotel the agency alleges discriminated against them.

The lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in Denver, claims the owners of the Hampton Inn franchise in Craig fired the workers because they are white and “it was their impression that such workers are lazy,” the case filing states.

The Hampton Inn suit accuses the hotel’s owners, Century Shree Corp. and Century Rama Inc. — as well as those companies’ owners, Falgun Patel, Mukund Patel and Piyush Patel — of race discrimination.

According to the complaint, the hotel hired the three workers — Wendy Buckley, Ashlee Flannery and Dewetta McKnight — shortly before it opened in 2009 to work in the laundry and housekeeping departments. All three workers were fired later that year and replaced by Latino employees. By the end of the year, all workers in the laundry and housekeeping departments were Latinos, according to the complaint.

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