BY ABBY TILSNER

One of the largest class-action sexual harassment lawsuits ever is generating controversy nationwide. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed the suit, which could cover some 500 past and present employees, against Mitsubishi Motors Manufacturing of America (MMMA). The plaintiffs are eligible for up to $300,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, plus back wages and interest, to total more than $150 million.

The abuse occurred at Mitsubishi's only assembly plant in the United States, located in Normal, Illinois, 140 miles southwest of Chicago. The plant employs some 4,000 assembly and maintenance workers, about one-fifth of whom are female.

In 1992 female employees began filing complaints to United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2488 and to management, but got no relief. Several of them hired Patricia Benassi, a prominent Peoria lawyer, who began filing with the EEOC.

In December 1994 Benassi filed a civil suit on behalf of 29 women charging "relentless sexual discrimination, sexual harassment, sex abuse from male colleagues and, in many cases, from male supervisors."

Some workers have experienced retaliation since filing the charges. One found her car scratched and defaced while another was forced off the road. Others in the plant are supporting the fight against sex harassment. One of the complainants was given a standing ovation by her male co-workers, according to an article in Time magazine. "We know what's happened," one worker told her, "and we admire your courage."

In court Mitsubishi attorneys demanded plaintiffs' gynecological and psychological records as well as information about the women's living arrangements. "She was not sexually harassed. She was promiscuous," Roy Davis, a company lawyer, said of one of the plaintiffs.

According to the class action suit later filed by the EEOC, hundreds of women working in the plant were subjected to "unwanted grabbing, groping, and touching." In interviews with EEOC investigators and Washington Post reporters, Mitsubishi workers described a range of harassment. This included supervisors and workers calling women "sluts" and "whores" and displaying sexually explicit photographs in work areas and break rooms. Among the graffiti on the men's bathroom wall, the EEOC said, were lists ranking women in the plant by their estimated breast size.

On April 22 Mitsubishi organized a protest in front of the EEOC offices in downtown Chicago. The company shut down production and offered free lunch, a day's wages, and a ride aboard one of the 58 buses for employees to attend. Management claimed the event was organized by rank-and-file workers.

Up to 3,000 workers attended the rally with signs stating "Employees Supporting MMMA" and chanting "2-4-6-8, we're here to get the story straight."

The demonstration was denounced by AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, UAW president Stephen Yokich, and other top union officials.

At the same time Don Shelby, vice president of UAW Local 2488 at the Normal Mitsubishi plant, told members they were free to attend the protest and that both participants and non-participants would be paid regular wages.

Many Mitsubishi workers have been quoted in the media saying they are worried the lawsuit could hurt the company's sales and endanger their jobs, which pay better than most in the area. Company officials have recently announced they are losing money at the Normal plant.

Mitsubishi chairman Hirokazu Nakamura admitted, "There were such cases" of harassment at the Normal plant but he insisted they had been dealt with. The company says it has fired 10 workers -

four this year - for sexual harassment. Mitsubishi has hired former labor secretary Lynn Martin to develop a "workplace master plan" to deal with sexual harassment. Benassi, the lawyer in the private suit, called this move "just a publicity ploy."

There have been pickets outside several Mitsubishi dealerships supporting the EEOC suit. Rev. Jesse Jackson, of PUSH, organized a protest in mid-May at the Mitsubishi car dealership in Oak Lawn, Illinois, as well as calling for a boycott of Mitsubishi cars. The National Organization for Women (NOW), organized picketing at a dealership in Marlow Heights, Maryland, and NOW president Patricia Ireland called for members to participate in "informational" picketing outside dealerships.

Illinois state NOW president Luellen Laurenti announced she would not join such actions directed against the automaker, saying she preferred rallies to support the alleged victims instead.

Abby Tilsner is a member of UAW Local 664 at General Motors in Tarrytown, New York.  
 
 
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