A journeyman laborer who worked on Microsoft’s major Redmond, Wash., campus modernization project is suing the tech company as well as contractors Skanska and Balfour Beatty Construction over alleged racial discrimination he says took place on the job.
Quinte Harris was hired to work on the project through a Skanska-Balfour Beatty joint venture starting in the spring of 2021, according to a complaint filed April 25 in Western Washington U.S. District Court. Within a month of joining the job, Harris, who is African-American, “became aware of racial hostility from certain white construction operatives.”