A group of workers filed a federal lawsuit against Woodlawn Cemetery, saying they are seeking justice for all workers subjected to racism at the northwest Bronx historical landmark.

The group of workers — brothers Alexis Coss and Enrique Coss, as well as Todd Brown and Frank Russo — are suing the not-for-profit corporation, its board of directors, and Woodlawn’s president, John P. Toale, Jr., for discrimination at the cemetery workplace on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, and disability.

The Cosses, Brown, and Russo say management has promoted racial division within the workplace by ignoring harassment claims. The workers say they (and several other workers who are not plaintiffs) have been subject to racial slurs including, “monkey, gorilla, and mutt,” and have also not received equal opportunities for overtime pay and/or promotions.

The cemetery has faced racist claims for years now and underwent an independent investigation with the law offices of Collazo, Florentino and Keel LLP back in 2010, which led to the implementation of sensitivity training and the firing of one supervisor. No more than five months later, the cemetery began to lay off workers. Although employees believed that the layoffs were due to publicizing the racism at Woodlawn, the cemetery insisted they were for budget purposes.

“There were no indications of layoffs prior to the investigation,” Enrique Coss said. “It’s easy to use that ‘divide and conquer’ tactic.”

In an email response, Toale, Jr. denied all charges against the cemetery and is “confident” that the corporation will “prevail at trial.”

Brown said he was “really hurt” by what happened after the investigation.

“I thought there was a chance for some real change,” he said, explaining that what followed the private review were divisions among the workers and even a shooting threat that was left unexplored by management.

“Management told us, if we stayed quiet, there would be no more layoffs,” Brown said.

“It made us feel like we were guilty of the layoffs,” he added.

Employees and management alike are parties of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) which ensures employees on several rights, including job security, proper overtime rotations, and fair promotions. In this agreement, which management has allegedly violated, overtime is to be rotated equally within each department, so that each worker can benefit; promotions are to be posted and given to senior workers; and lastly, workers are not to be fired without just cause.

“There was such an atmosphere of fear … we said enough is enough,” Enrique Coss said on deciding to take action against the cemetery. “The myth is that we were, for a lack of a better term, ‘brave enough.’ We showed leadership qualities that elevated us into leader roles.”

He added, “The fact that workers fear and hesitate in standing up shows that there is a problem. The mere fact that we were not afraid spoke volumes.”

Brown and the Coss brothers all served as shop stewards — elected positions — in their unions.

“I didn’t like that men were walking with their heads down,” Brown said about taking a leadership role.

Brown said management required Russo to rotate out of a position he had held for more than 10 years, causing him to lose multiple overtime opportunities. Plaintiffs believe retaliations caused Russo’s brain tumor to worsen and he was left to take a disability leave. Russo went into retirement because he could not survive on the leave alone.

Despite the layoffs and the growing division between workers, Enrique Coss says he’s still trying to “fight the good fight” for those in similar situations who are too afraid to speak out.

“We want to set the example, show that they don’t have to live in fear,” he said.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the April 4-17 print edition of the Norwood News.