Full Text of SR1561 100th General Assembly
SR1561 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | SENATE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, For the last quarter-century, the Ford Motor | 3 | | Company has garnered a reputation for mishandling complaints of | 4 | | sexual and racial harassment at their production plants across | 5 | | the nation, giving rise to a string of lawsuits in the 1990s, | 6 | | an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) | 7 | | investigation, and a $22 million settlement to Ford employees | 8 | | who experienced harassment; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, The allegations made by female employees have | 10 | | included crude comments about women's bodies, graphic images of | 11 | | male genitalia, groping, males simulating sexual acts or | 12 | | masturbating in front of the women, and supervisors who offered | 13 | | favorable treatment to women who would have sex with them; and
| 14 | | WHEREAS, The culture at the Ford plants enabled this | 15 | | conduct, thereby causing many of the women who reported | 16 | | harassment to be mocked, dismissed, threatened, or ostracized; | 17 | | and
| 18 | | WHEREAS, While Ford touted its purported commitment to | 19 | | cracking down on this hostile work environment of the 1990s, it | 20 | | continued to delay firing those accused of harassment, did not | 21 | | provide adequate sexual harassment training, and failed to | 22 | | stamp out retaliation against those women who reported |
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| 1 | | misconduct, leaving workers to conclude that offenders would go | 2 | | unpunished; and | 3 | | WHEREAS, Ford has done little to address the longstanding | 4 | | culture of sexual harassment at its plants, resulting in | 5 | | another EEOC investigation, a recent $10 million settlement of | 6 | | sexual harassment claims, and continuing litigation between | 7 | | Ford and employees who suffer from this pervasive sexual and | 8 | | racial harassment; and | 9 | | WHEREAS, Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant and the Chicago | 10 | | Stamping Plant, which together employ over 5,700 people, of | 11 | | which just under a third are women, have been the source of | 12 | | half of all sexual harassment and gender discrimination | 13 | | complaints lodged against Ford with the EEOC; and | 14 | | WHEREAS, Although United Auto Workers (UAW) is the union | 15 | | entrusted with representing Ford workers in employment | 16 | | matters, UAW not only breached its duty of fair representation | 17 | | to women experiencing harassment at Ford's Chicago plants, but | 18 | | many of the alleged perpetrators of harassment included UAW | 19 | | representatives and leadership; and | 20 | | WHEREAS, Harassment victims who sought protection from UAW | 21 | | were instead rebuked for tattling on a union brother and | 22 | | putting a man's job at risk, and bullied into tolerating the |
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| 1 | | harassment as just another aspect of the job; and
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Neither Ford nor UAW took any action to mitigate | 3 | | the inherent conflict of interest that arises when both a | 4 | | victim and the perpetrator of sexual harassment are members of | 5 | | the same collective bargaining unit and the union must fairly | 6 | | represent both workers; and
| 7 | | WHEREAS, Many of the known and unknown women who became | 8 | | victims of sexual harassment throughout their employment with | 9 | | Ford are Illinois workers who have suffered serious | 10 | | psychological and physical trauma, economic loss, and | 11 | | retaliation including loss of their jobs as a result of Ford | 12 | | and UAW's gross mishandling and failure to eradicate this | 13 | | impermissible behavior; therefore, be it
| 14 | | RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL | 15 | | ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge the Equal | 16 | | Employment Opportunity Commission, the Illinois Department of | 17 | | Human Rights, and the Illinois Department of Labor to | 18 | | investigate the culture of harassment at Ford's Illinois | 19 | | plants, and provide increased support for the brave women who | 20 | | have come forward to make their voices heard; and be it further | 21 | | RESOLVED, That we call upon the Governor of Illinois to | 22 | | review all state contracts with Ford Motor Company for |
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| 1 | | compliance with the Illinois Human Rights Act, the Illinois | 2 | | Procurement Code, and other laws and regulations governing | 3 | | state contractors; and be it further | 4 | | RESOLVED, That we call upon the National Labor Relations | 5 | | Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the | 6 | | Illinois Department of Human Rights, and the Illinois | 7 | | Department of Labor to investigate UAW's role in facilitating | 8 | | the harassment at Ford's Illinois plants, including whether it | 9 | | breached its duty of fair representation to union members who | 10 | | were victims of harassment; and be it further
| 11 | | RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 12 | | delivered to Governor Bruce Rauner, the Acting Chair and the | 13 | | Commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, | 14 | | the members of the National Labor Relations Board, the Director | 15 | | of the Illinois Department of Human Rights, the Director of the | 16 | | Illinois Department of Labor, the United Automobile Workers | 17 | | International Executive Board, and the Board of Directors at | 18 | | Ford Motor Company.
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