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The incidents that led to
Wood filing a charge of discrimination against General
Motors occurred in the first half of 2017 when he became
aware of an increasingly hostile work environment after the
first incident of nooses hanging in the Powertrain workplace
along with racial comments made and racial slurs painted on
restroom walls. That first incident was reported to
management of March 22, 2017.
Wood charged that
management failed to take the incident seriously and, as a
result of the hostile work environment fostered by this
failure, Wood, after having been president of the union for
10 years, was not re-elected and forced to retire because of
his race and in retaliation for opposing racial
discrimination.
“I wanted them to address
the situation right away – put out a letter about nooses and
discrimination,” says Wood now. “They would not do that.”
The second noose incident
occurred on May 2 and a third one on June 2. In between
these noose hangings, Nazi symbols and other offensive
graffiti were painted in restrooms. Indeed, reports of such
incidents continued through the rest of 2017 and as recently
as January 2018.
As president of the Union,
Wood met on occasions with the human resources director and
the plant manager to try to put together a plan of action on
how to proceed with remedying the situation but noted in his
complaint that his suggestions were ignored. “The human
resources director did not have an idea of how to make
people safe and comfortable when coming to work,” says
Woods. In short time, he adds, “the floor got crazy with
blacks against whites.”
Election time came for
union positions and the hostility in the plant led to Wood’s
defeat in his re-election attempt particularly after union
members went to management during this period complaining
that Wood belonged to a racist organization – the NAACP.
The Civil Rights
Commission went into the plant and interviewed numerous
witnesses, both management and non-management, over a period
of time and concluded that: 1) the incidents had occurred,
2) that management “has not taken effective remedial action
to address a racially hostile work environment” and 3)
“employees continue to endure offensive symbols, comments,
and hostility in the workplace causing them anxiety, fear,
and apprehension due to race in violation” of Ohio law.
The Conciliation Agreement
and Consent Order issued by the Toledo Regional Office on
March 16, 2018 seeks to bring the parties together “to
ensure voluntary compliance with the provisions of the Ohio
Laws Against Discrimination.” The agreement that the Office
wants both parties – charging and respondent – to sign
states that GM will not allow discrimination, shall provide
a work environment free of harassment and hostility, shall
establish an Equal Opportunity Officer within the facility
and shall hold annual training sessions equal opportunity
issues for every employee. In addition, the Office asks GM
to have Wood reinstated as union president and to pay any
back wages he would have received as president since June
19, 2017, although it is difficult to understand how this
could be accomplished and Wood himself says he is not
interested in such reinstatement.
The agreement, on the
other hand, asks Wood, as charging party, to refrain from
further suits against GM if both are partied to the
agreement.
General Motors opted to
file a Request for Reconsideration and a hearing on that
matter will be held this Thursday, April 5 in Dayton.
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