A Black longtime worker at the Chevron USA Inc. refinery in El Segundo is suing the oil company for racial discrimination and harassment, alleging he waited 17 years to be promoted while other non-Black employees were given more preferential treatment.
Torin Ganter’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit also alleges retaliation and failure to prevent harassment and discrimination. Ganter seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
“(Chevron’s) conduct … constitutes a continuous and systematic course of unlawful conduct that persisted on a recurring basis throughout plaintiff’s employment…,” the suit states.
A Chevron representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the suit brought Friday.
Ganter worked as an accountant before Chevron hired him in July 2008 as an instrumental and electrical mechanic trainee. He later became a journeyman and has remained in the mechanic classification under various titles. He was one of only two Black mechanics when he was hired.
Early in his Chevron career, co-workers made racially insensitive remarks, including, “I bet you have on an orange FUBU jacket,” a reference to a clothing brand associated with Black consumers, the suit states. A supervisor, in an interaction with the plaintiff, warned Ganter he could be fired if he disobeyed him, according to the complaint.
Ganter says he was repeatedly stymied in his attempts to promote, initially with verbal requests and later in writing. He wanted to finish his career as a supervisor and he believes that before the summer of 2025, Chevron had not promoted any Black instrument and electrical mechanics at the refinery to supervisor during the plaintiff’s time there, including Blacks with more seniority than him.
Two of Ganter’s white co-workers were allowed special training, but Ganter was not given the same chance despite Chevron’s promises, the suit states.
In November 2022, Ganter complained to a Chevron manager that his supervisor was obstructing his career, according to the suit. During the meeting, a Ganter co-worker told the manager that the supervisor “hates Torin” and “calls him the N-word all the time,” the suit states.
The meeting was the first time that Ganter heard his supervisor had used a racial slur against him, the suit states. The supervisor was fired in 2024 and the year before Ganter was finally given a supervisorial position, but with only a small wage increase, the suit states.
When Ganter was officially promoted in August 2025 to the job of planner, he was only given a $5 hourly increase, the suit states. Ganter had identified construction services and planner positions as his goals in writing in his 2021 employee success plan.
“His eventual promotion confirms that he was qualified for advancement long before Chevron chose to grant it,” the suit states.
Chevron’s delay in promoting Ganter has cost him years of supervisory pay and benefits given to non-Black workers and the plaintiff has suffered emotional distress due to the alleged disparate treatment, the suit states.