Steven Linell Smith, a black maintenance mechanic formerly employed at the United States Postal Service’s St. Paul Processing and Distribution Center in Eagan, Minnesota, endured five years of racial harassment, stalking, threats and management retaliation before being fired on a pretext.
In 2025, after a five-day jury trial, Smith won a federal hostile work environment case against USPS. He documented 32 incidents between September 2017 and March 2022, including repeated racial slurs, physical threats, stalking of himself and his wife, false police reports and a death threat left on his toolbox.
But Smith remains out of his job. The American Postal Workers Union, which told him his case was “unwinnable,” refused to fight for him over the racial harassment that defined his years at the facility. After Smith won in court, local APWU President Dave Cook sent him a personal letter telling him he would have to sue the union to get his job back.
“They took it all,” Smith told the World Socialist Web Site. “They took the 401k, retirement benefits, everything.” Smith, who had worked his way up from a $12.50-an-hour custodial position to a Level 9 maintenance mechanic earning $37.50 an hour, now works as a driver. “This is just a job,” he said.
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