AK Steel Corp. has agreed to pay $600,000 to settle federal charges that it condoned a racially hostile work environment at its Butler plant for years by allowing racist language, swastikas, nooses and Ku Klux Klan videos in various areas, including the employee lounge. The problem was so pervasive that managers knew of it without complaints having been made by black workers, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which announced the settlement Wednesday. The Fortune 500, Middletown, Ohio-based company denied the allegations in the settlement agreement, which calls for employees at the plant to undergo annual training in equal employment opportunity policies. Alan McCoy, an AK Steel spokesman, said the company has no tolerance for the alleged behavior. "We deny (the allegations) and obviously, were fully prepared to defend the allegations, but in the interest of judicial expediency and to move forward, we agreed to the settlement," he said. Gerald Patterson, who was from Lyndora, made the initial complaint, but has since died. The settlement will be split between his estate and seven other black employees. "The racial harassment alleged in this case, including the use of derogatory ethnic terms, nooses displayed in the work environment and disciplining those who complained of race discrimination, represents some of the most severe misconduct this office has seen," EEOC Regional Attorney Jacqueline McNair said in a statement Wednesday. The "sizable monetary relief" and training should deter "future acts of blatant racism," she said. Among other items mentioned in the suit was literature from the Populist Party -- the party with which former Klan leader David Duke ran for president in 1988 -- that referred to a Congressional candidate the EEOC contends was affiliated with the Klan. Patterson had been one of about 20 black employees at the plant, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, EEOC officials said when the suit was filed in September 2003. The suit covered allegations for three years, but the EEOC said it fielded complaints from other black workers at the plant for years.

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