Nine African-Americans who are employees or former employees of General Motors Co.’s Toledo Transmission plant have filed a lawsuit alleging the company allowed overt acts of racism to take place in the plant in the spring of 2017, creating a hostile work environment and a racially-charged atmosphere.
The lawsuit alleges multiple racists acts and acts of hate took place inside Toledo Transmission in March 2017 but that GM did not address the situation until June.
The case has been assigned to federal Judge Jack Zouhary. The plaintiffs have requested a jury trial.
The lawsuit, first filed last April in U.S. District Court in Toledo but amended and refiled on Sept. 21, references an earlier finding by the Ohio Civil Rights Commission which investigated the complaints of racism at the plant Transmission plant and documented at least three instances in which nooses were discovered in the plant between March and June of 2017.
The lawsuit alleges many other similar incidents took place at the plant that turned it into “an environment with an underlying atmosphere of violent racial hate and bullying...” Two of the plaintiffs eventually resigned from General Motors in 2018.
The nine are seeking damages, punitive damages, costs, interest, and attorney fees. The lawsuit also lists 10 steps, including establishing an Equal Employment Officer at the plant, be enacted at the plant as measures to correct the hostile work environment.
General Motors said it is taking the allegations seriously.
"Every day, everyone at General Motors is expected to uphold a set of values that are integral to the fabric of our culture,” the automaker said in a statement to the Detroit Free Press. “Discrimination and harassment are not acceptable and in stark contrast to how we expect people to show up at work. We treat any reported incident with sensitivity and urgency, and are committed to providing an environment that is safe, open and inclusive. General Motors is taking this matter seriously and addressing it through the appropriate court process.”
More recently, longtime union leader and President of Toledo’s NAACP chapter, Ray Wood, also filed a federal lawsuit against General Motors for ongoing racial issues that he says caused a hostile work environment.
Mr. Wood, who was employed with General Motors for more than 30 years and served as the Local 14 president, said racially offensive incidents — including nooses hanging from equipment and white employees using slurs to refer to their black co-workers — began in the spring of 2017 as union elections started.
First Published November 29, 2018, 11:40 p.m.
