Automobile Workers v. Johnson Controls

Various unions filed a class-action lawsuit claiming that Johnson's fetal protection policy was sex discrimination. Some employees joined them: Mary Craig, a young woman who became sterilized rather than lose her job; Elsie Nason, a 50-year-old divorcee, who had to transfer to a lower-paying but lead-free position; and Donald Penney, who had been denied leave of absence to lower his lead level before fathering a child.

In its 1985 opinion, the district court stressed there was every likelihood that exposure to lead placed a fetus at risk--as well as affected the reproductive abilities of would-be parents. However, the court thought the same amount of lead exposure would affect the fetus more.

Therefore, since the union and its employees had not offered an acceptable alternative policy to protect the fetus, the court found that the company's policy had been a "business necessity" and decided in favor of Johnson Controls. The defeated groups appealed.