Ford Chicago workers expand sexual harassment suit

By Micah Maidenberg, Crain News Service

CHICAGO (May 21, 2015) — Female Ford Motor Co. employees have expanded a pending class-action lawsuit against the auto maker, claiming the company failed to address rampant sexual harassment at both of its manufacturing facilities in the Chicago area.

An amended complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago claimed the harassment isn't limited to the company's Torrence Avenue assembly plant on the South Side, as four women alleged when bringing the suit in November, but also is pervasive at the Ford stamping facility in Chicago Heights.

“It shows the problem is much broader than…alleged in our original lawsuit,” Chicago lawyer Keith Hunt, who's representing the plaintiffs, said during a press briefing yesterday. “What it really shows is this has been part of an ongoing and continuous environment in these plants that has never really been effectively remediated.”

Mr. Hunt said 33 people have now joined as plaintiffs — 31 of them work or formerly worked at the assembly plant, with the other two associated with the stamping plant.

In 2000, Ford and another group of female workers settled a class-action suit that also alleged sexual harassment was widespread at the assembly plant and the stamping facility. Mr. Hunt also was the plaintiffs' attorney in that case.

The amended complaint claims that women at the factories were groped and faced sexual assault and requests for sexual favors. Women who complained were written up, given less-desirable jobs and didn't get overtime, the suit alleges.

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Kristina Adamski, a Ford spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement that the company has a “zero-tolerance anti-harassment policy that applies to all employees. We take the allegations of harassment and improper conduct made by employees at our Chicago Assembly and Chicago Stamping plants very seriously.

“Ford does not tolerate harassment or discrimination of any kind, and we are fully committed to a zero-tolerance, harassment-free work environment at all work facilities and to ensuring that Ford's work environment is consistent with our policies in that regard.”

But Miyoshi Morris, who worked for 18 years at the Chicago assembly plant until being fired last year, said she didn't see any improvements after the first class-action case was settled.

“There was no change. It only educated management, or the other offenders, to be more subtle and at the same time be a little more aggressive in their approach to the harassment,” said Ms. Morris, who alleged that she was terminated because she spoke out against verbal and physical harassment she faced.

Shranda Campbell, an autoworker at Ford's Chicago Heights plant, said she still sees the supervisor who has harassed her every day when she goes to work.

Ms. Campbell said her United Auto Workers representative tried to help her, but other plaintiffs claim that union officials were part of the problem. Coby Millender, a union official at the assembly plant, was one of the harassers, according to the amended complaint.

Mr. Hunt, the attorney for the women, said Ford removed Mr. Millender from his job but the UAW filed a grievance to get him his position back. Mr. Millender could not be reached for comment, and it wasn't possible to leave a message for Chris Pena, the president of Local 551, which represents workers at the South Side factory.

News broke in early May that Ford has replaced the plant manager, human resources officials and labor relations officials at the Chicago assembly facility. As many as eight managers have been removed from the factory over the last few months, Crain's sister publication Automotive News reported.

Mr. Hunt said he wants federally appointed monitors installed in the factory, giving female workers an outside person to lodge complaints he claims Ford has ignored.

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This report appeared on the website of Crain's Chicago Business, a sister publication of Tire Business