DETROIT – A Clinton Township, Mich., industrial painting company illegally retaliated against a journeyman painter by terminating him for complaining about a supervisor’s use of the “N-word,” the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it filed today. According to the EEOC’s suit, Case No. 2:11CV11296, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Atsalis Brothers Painting Company refused to call Rodney Trice back to work in retaliation for his complaints about a white supervisor’s repeated use of the racial slur. Trice said that the word was used repeatedly on the job site.