Nine black men formerly employed at a General Motors plant in Toledo, Ohio, have filed a lawsuit alleging “violent racial hate and bullying” during their employment between 2015 and 2018, according to an extensive examination of the April 2018 suit from CNN Thursday, Jan. 17.
Testimony from former GM supervisor Marcus Boyd painted a picture of a workplace where Boyd’s white coworkers used a racial slur and refused to follow his directions, even though he was employed in a position senior to them. Aggression escalated into threats, and plant leadership and union officials would not step in to help, Boyd alleged.
Boyd and Derrick Brooks, who was also profiled in the CNN piece, worked at the plant from 2015 to 2018. Workers hung nooses in the plant as a threat, the suit says. The final straw for Boyd was a rumor that a group of white men were planning to sabotage him and follow him out of the building.
In March 2017, the Ohio Civil Rights Commission declared that over the course of a nine-month investigation they had found the Toledo plant to foster a racially aggressive environment. A federal lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio in April 2018 alleging racial discrimination and a hostile work environment. Additional workers joined the case in September 2018, bringing the total number of claimants to nine.
Michelle E. Vocht of Roy, Shecter & Vocht, representing the plaintiffs, told Manufacturing.net that her firm is planning on amending the claim again at the end of January.
Brooks is currently employed and studying for his Ph.D. Boyd is going back to school, and leaving the industry, according to CNN.
GM told CNN that some people have been fired from the Toledo plant in the course of a wider anti-discrimination sweep.
GM corporate says they also responded by closing the plant for one day to hold mandatory training. Vocht told Manufacturing.net that the plant was never closed.
In a statement to CNN, GM said: "Every day, everyone at General Motors is expected to uphold a set of values that are integral to the fabric of our culture. Discrimination and harassment are not acceptable and [are] 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."
However, the lawyers in the case have showed evidence of aggressive racist messages (“..mean bastards you need to hang”) written on a wall at the plant as of January 2019, according to CNN.
