By: CJ Lester, @CJLester58
SteelerNation.com
The news broke earlier this week that former Pittsburgh Steelers' running back and NFL Hall of Famer, Jerome Bettis is suing EQT Corp. Bettis and his brother, John, are the majority owners of a trucking company, IntegrServ LLC. Their trucking company is suing EQT Corp. for racial discrimination and is seeking $66 Million in damages. The Bettis' owned trucking company is seeking this amount due to breach of contract and the ruining of the company's reputation. The lawsuit filed August the 18th in a U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh accused EQT Corp. of unlawfully terminating the contract that was in place with the Bettis' owned company. EQT stated safety violations for the reason of the contract termination due to a truck rollover and a subcontractor finding a handgun in the truck of one of IntegrServ's workers. The handgun was confiscated, EQT was informed of the matter, and the worker was terminated. As for the truck rollover, there were no injuries or property damages. Bettis has stated that his company provided a plan to correct the safety issues and EQT ignored it. Bettis stated, "We did everything that was asked of us and more. And we won't stand for injustice." In fact, Bettis acknowledged that they had been given EQT's safety award the previous year. The contract that is in question of being terminated unlawfully was supposed to run through February 2021. The lawsuit also states that the new CEO of EQT, Toby Rice despised the Bettis' owned company and stated, "He's stealing my money," in reference to Bettis and the contract agreement that was in place before Rice took over as CEO. Rice went on to tell another partner that he hated those contracts and would "slash it." These remarks insinuate that Rice had ideas in place to terminate the contract one way or another, which is the argument Bettis' company is trying to make in the lawsuit. The other company KMI was informed after the termination of the contract that they would be brought back in. “In effect, by replacing IntegrServ with KMI as its trucking contractor, EQT continued utilizing the same hauling services that it had previously utilized prior to termination of the IntegrServ Contracts, but only after it succeeded in excluding the two Black partners from participating in, or benefiting from, the business arrangement,” stated in the lawsuit.
The Bettis brothers company's accusations are clear. Will there be enough evidence to prove EQT racially discriminated in the termination of the contract agreement they had in place with the Bettis' owned trucking company? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
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