MISREPRESENTED
Colatosti, Camille
MISREPRESENTED by camille colatosti Women fight harassment and the union boys' club When the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission sued Mitsubishi in April in a historic class-action suit...
...But, says Cynthia Pierre, deputy director of the EEOC's regional office in Chicago, the union did not ensure that the company enforced this Camide Colatosti is the author of "Stopping Sexual Harassment: A Handbook for Union and Workplace Activists...
...They accused him of conduct unbecoming a union representative...
...Its mission, as stated in the constitution, is "to coordinate and provide information and resources to local unions and members, for the purposes of increasing the activity and participation of current women members, and to assist organizing new women members for our union...
...At a work site, we're usually a minority of one," says Mary Baird, a founding member of Cleveland's Hard Hatted Women, a group of female construction workers...
...The only way to avoid situations like Darco's, says Peggy Nash, assistant to the president of the Canadian Auto Workers, is for unions to confront co-worker harassment head-on...
...She says she experiences harassment nearly every day of her working life...
...She transferred out of the station...
...For many working women, especially those employed in blue-collar jobs traditionally held by men, the allegations come as no surprise...
...The union representative was sexually harassing female agents...
...I'm trying to survive and I don't know if I'm going to...
...The AFL-CIO likewise is reaching out to working women...
...They speak to their union representative, who then approaches management through official channels...
...Only 8.9 percent of precision production workers and 3.6 percent of mineworkers are female...
...A week later, a drawing of a rear end appeared on the sheet metal...
...The union didn't take the harassment seriously," she savs...
...In 1991, the courts finally agreed...
...The union thus becomes a champion of the harasser, while the female victim of harassment testifies against the union on behalf of the company...
...tells of her experience as a ticket agent for an airline in Southern California...
...I still don't feel comfortable asking the union for help...
...I turned Charlie in to the company," Darco says, "because I wanted to stand up for my rights...
...The attacks were attempts to intimidate the women and to force them to give up their positions...
...Debra Darco, for example, is the only woman among the 400 workers at Wagner Mining and Construction Equipment in Oregon...
...I've been blackballed...
...Comments such as "beautiful eyes' and 'nice legs' were written in the margins...
...When union officials are themselves the harassers, it is extremely difficult for women union members to convince other union officials, most of whom are men...
...There are women officers in this local who never objected to meeting in this strip bar in the past," said one of the female representatives...
...Instead of taking the initiative against harassment and protecting workers' rights, they react to management decisions...
...The union sometimes even files a grievance on behalf of the harasser, protesting discipline he may have received from management...
...However, the steward appealed to the next-highest union body...
...The case came to arbitration when the Machinists Union filed a grievance for Charlie, protesting the discipline he received from the company...
...Linda La\-ton...
...Some union leaders like it this way...
...When I went to the union to say I was being harassed and I wanted something done, they said they could sit down with both of us and mediate...
...She then complained to her supervisor and contacted her own attorney...
...Why'1 I think it is he-cause of intimidation...
...Meanwhile, union officials continued to harass her...
...Managers then went to Zimmer's co-workers and told them to tear down their pictures, not because harassment is against the law, but because "Melanie wanted them to...
...And in many blue-collar jobs, women are still dramatically underrepresented...
...The isolation that blue-collar women experience can become intense...
...Phone (313)365-6641...
...Teamsters spokesperson Cynthia Kain explains, "Understanding the issue has been a big challenge...
...A lot of men were saying they don't understand what it is...
...But for unions to make great strides against sexual harassment, they must get more women into leadership positions...
...The Canadian Auto Workers took a step toward enforcing zero tolerance when it established an extensive educational program, negotiating paid training on sexual-harassment issues for their members...
...The bargaining agreement between Mitsubishi and the United Auto Workers Local 2488 included an anti-discrimination clause opposing "any type of harassment or discrimination...
...Union members and supervisors were watching pornographic videos during work...
...She's a member of Boilermakers Local 72 and builds hydraulics...
...MISREPRESENTED by camille colatosti Women fight harassment and the union boys' club When the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission sued Mitsubishi in April in a historic class-action suit claiming that as many as 500 women workers had suffered sexual harassment, the company had egg on its face, but so did the union...
...Other unions organize voluntary educational programs and encourage members to participate...
...And while ultimately it is the employer's responsibility to provide a harassment-free workplace, it is also the obligation of the union to represent all workers fairly and to ensure that management enforces the contract...
...To fight isolation, some women form workplace committees...
...To the \iclim...
...OCAW has also established a column devoted to women's issues in its monthly magazine, The Reporter...
...President Sweeney said Nussbaum is charged "with developing a program that will inject the issues and concerns of working women into every nook and cranny of our movement and with making the labor movement a strong, activist voice for working women...
...It's all I can do to get through a day down there...
...Sexual-harassment problems persist for union women in part because the majority of union officials are male...
...They named me a whore, a bitch, a crazv woman...
...Too often, racial slurs, whistles, and sexist comments are passed off by the ha-rassers with the comment: 'Can't they take a joke?' It's no joke...
...Melanie Zimmer works as an airplane mechanic for Northwest Airlines in Minneapolis...
...The harassment was verbal: The union official repeatedly made remarks implying that the victim, because she was a woman, could not do her job...
...No one will speak to me," she says...
...Situations like those described above make women hesitate to approach the union for help with sexual-harassment problems...
...The union really did not help alleviate women's mistreatment," Pierre says...
...Some unions try to promote women's leadership by holding national women's conferences and organizing national women's committees...
...In a unionized workplace, this strategy seems peculiar at best and divisive at worst...
...Many union members then turn against the woman...
...She was seen as the one who got co-workers in trouble, and her isolation increased...
...Till Pki ii,ki ss|\ i "this means that I cannot expect fair treatment from the grievance committee...
...Darco testified against him and he was fired after twenty-two years on the job...
...As part of the Teamsters' human-rights campaign, the pamphlet, distributed to local leaders, clarified the definition of sexual harassment...
...Thev denied me due process...
...Women employees objected and upper management wanted to fire everyone involved...
...In his locker were job applications which contained home addresses and phone numbers...
...who remains with the same empkner...
...Rather than suspend the steward from office, they simply reprimanded him...
...There are several unions in her shop...
...Within hours, the company installed sheet metal behind Jane, blocking her co-workers' view...
...Ultimately, the harasser received a slap on the wrist...
...Unfortunately, this story is not unique...
...They become involved in incidents of harassment only if the ha-rasser is a union member...
...she says...
...The union should take it upon itself to implement policies, organize educational sessions, and distribute literature on the issue...
...Unions need to take a stand, making it clear that sexual harassment is not permissible, whether it comes from management or from union members...
...it's degrading and humiliating...
...available for $8 postpaid, from the Working-Women's Project, 11391 Lumpkin Street, Hamtramck, Ml 48212...
...They believe that stopping sexual harassment is the employer's responsibility, and tell members to report problems directly to management...
...He yvas transferred to another work site, but continues to sit on the local's grievance committee...
...The committee came together to support three women who had experienced sexual harassment from coworkers...
...Bob White, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, promotes a "zero-tolerance" policy...
...She put up with this situation for months before she complained to her supervisor and her union representative...
...Rather than being an ally for women workers, the union itself can become a harasser...
...The Women's Action Group is a committee in a building-trades local at a large electronics company in Massachusetts...
...Tradeswomen face hostility from both supervisors and co-workers...
...she recalls...
...The EEOC report also alleges that managers coerced some women into performing sex acts...
...A machinist, Charlie, exposed himself and masturbated in front of her...
...The union was so indifferent to her situation that it even allowed the harasser, as a member of the grievance committee, to evaluate her grievance against him...
...Male supervisors and line workers rubbed their genitals against female workers, and masturbated while staring at the women working beside them, the EEOC said...
...Workers who have a problem with overtime pay or line speed, for example, don't speak directly to their supervisors...
...It seems like the numbers are a lot higher than what we were aware of," confessed Donald Shelby, vice president of the United Auto Workers Local 2488...
...For years, blue-collar women have said such pin-ups create a hostile atmosphere...
...Even though this can seem to raise questions about choosing sides and breaking workers' solidarity, there can be no solidarity with sexist and racist behavior," she explains...
...The newly elected AFL-CIO leadership, headed by President John Sweeney, has appointed Karen Nuss-baum, founder of 9 to 5, the National Association of Working Women, to lead the federation's new working-women's department...
...A federal judge in Jacksonville...
...of the International Association of Machinists District 143...
...The Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Local 2477 won sexual-harassment training for all hourly and salaried employees at a Conoco Oil ref|* ery in Denver, Colorado...
...According to the EEOC, women workers complained of groping, crude graffiti, and derogatory epithets...
...In each case, the women were advancing to higher levels than the men approved of, in mostly male job areas," says Jean Alonso, a leader of the committee...
...Often both union representatives and management see the pictures as "no big deal...
...The Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers (OCAW), with women making up 15 to 20 percent of its 100,000 members, established a women's advisory committee in 1994...
...She's a member of the United Auto Workers Local 235...
...When she started work in the mid-1980s, she says, "everywhere you looked there were sexually suggestive pictures of women on the tool boxes, on the walls, hand-drawn on lunchroom tables...
...clause...
...The EEOC charged that harassment at the Mitsubishi plant in Normal, Illinois, was "standard operating procedure...
...Thev told me if I was going to tile a grievance, the harasser would judge its validity...
...Many male unionists have a difficult time recognizing harassment...
...When Northwest Airlines mechanic Melanie Zimmer was unable to get help from her union, the Machinists District 143, she went to management and asked that they remove pornography from the workplace...
...The women filed charges against the steward with the Machinists...
...As one tradeswoman explains, "Being the only woman on a construction site [means] having no one to relate to, not having rest-room facilities, having to speak up for myself on issues that I feel are unfair practices at work, and not having any support...
...Darco tried to file a union grievance, but the Boilermakers told her that this was management's problem...
...Since then, the situation at work has become unbearable for Darco...
...One woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, was harassed for almost a year by a member of her local's grievance committee...
...Asking women to approach management directly when they have a sexual-harassment problem, especially if that problem is with a co-worker, places women in the position of company stooge or union traitor...
...However, some local unions have done so...
...During a strike of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, for example, six union representatives—four men and two women— agreed to meet to discuss strategy...
...She works with her hack to the aisle...
...Sexual harassment is a fact of life for them...
...He now holds three union positions, Layton says...
...For women facing harassment on the job, that program cannot come soon enough...
...That means the unions should file grievances for victims of sexual harassment...
...Worst of all, thev hired an attorney for the harasser and gave him full counsel...
...The time has come for zero tolerance of pin-ups, of racial slurs," he says...
...One female agent who complained of harassment was told by management to avoid the steward...
...In 1994,1 was hired to write a pamphlet for the Teamsters entitled "Sexual Harassment: It's Against the Law...
...Only 2.3 percent of construction workers are women, for example...
...Then someone left dirty hand prints on the picture, positioned so they appeared to be grabbing at the buttocks...
...They don't understand what they can and can't do...
...Unions that refuse to address co-worker harassment find themselves facing increased problems...
...They refuse to accept any responsibility for harassment problems and may do their best to ignore sex discrimination...
...A committee in the union local found him guilty and recommended a three-year suspension from office...
...The male representatives selected what they referred to as their usual site and gave out directions...
...The attacks were gross in nature—smearing of feces, taunting about menstrual blood, and men exposing themselves...
...Shelby also said that he thought Mitsubishi had tried to improve the workplace for women in the last year...
...The union stepped in and instead of defending harassing behavior, negotiated paid sexual-harassment education for all employees...
...That group voted to amend the punishment...
...But the seriousness of the allegations against Mitsubishi belie that claim...
...Until recently, male co-workers constantly stared at her rear end...
...Nevertheless, pornography remains a part of the shop floor...
...But one day something happened that she couldn't ignore...
...In the United States, no union has yet negotiated paid training for its members nationwide...
...Unfortunateff the training came only after an incident of sexual harassment...
...For years, she put up with explicit sexual remarks and repeated propositions from her co-workers...
...In order for any union to reach a goal of zero tolerance, it needs to be sure that the policies outlined in its literature, and negotiated in its contracts, are enforced by top union leadership, reinforced at the union local level, and implemented in every workplace...
...Pornography became "Melanie's problem," Zimmer explains...
...The United Auto Workers, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, the Service Employees International Union, the Communications Workers of America, the Teamsters, and others also sponsor conferences that include workshops on fighting sexual harassment on the job...
...Florida, issued an injunction against Jacksonville Shipyards, Inc., and declared that "the posting of calendars and posters with nude or scantily clad women is a form of sexual harassment forbidden hv Title VII of the 1964 and 1991 Civil Rights Act...
...But really, thev pooh-poohed it...
...Men even formed a 'women-hater's club.'" Many women recognize that sexual harassment is designed to let them know that they are not wanted at the work site...
...While women compose a larger percentage of the unionized work force than ever before in the United States—37 percent—they make up only about 8 percent of elected and appointed union officials...
...she says...
...The United Auto Workers local at Mitsubishi has strong anti-harassment contract language, but since it is not enforced, it serves little purpose...
...that their buddy did something wrong...
...Jane (who asks that her last name not be used) works in an isolated area at the American Axle plant in Detroit...
...When the women got there, they discovered that the meeting place was a strip bar...
Vol. 60 • August 1996 • No. 8
