Bill Text: IL SR1561 | 2017-2018 | 100th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Urges the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Illinois Department of Human Rights, and the Illinois Department of Labor to investigate the culture of harassment at Ford's Illinois plants, and provide increased support for the brave women who have come forward to make their voices heard. Calls upon the Governor of Illinois to review all state contracts with Ford Motor Company for compliance with the Illinois Human Rights Act, the Illinois Procurement Code, and other laws and regulations governing state contractors. Calls upon the National Labor Relations Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Illinois Department of Human Rights, and the Illinois Department of Labor to investigate UAW's role in facilitating the harassment at Ford's Illinois plants, including whether it breached its duty of fair representation to union members who were victims of harassment.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Passed) 2018-05-31 - Resolution Adopted [SR1561 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2017-SR1561-Introduced.html

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SENATE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, For the last quarter-century, the Ford Motor
Company has garnered a reputation for mishandling complaints of
sexual and racial harassment at their production plants across
the nation, giving rise to a string of lawsuits in the 1990s,
an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
investigation, and a $22 million settlement to Ford employees
who experienced harassment; and
WHEREAS, The allegations made by female employees have
included crude comments about women's bodies, graphic images of
male genitalia, groping, males simulating sexual acts or
masturbating in front of the women, and supervisors who offered
favorable treatment to women who would have sex with them; and
WHEREAS, The culture at the Ford plants enabled this
conduct, thereby causing many of the women who reported
harassment to be mocked, dismissed, threatened, or ostracized;
and
WHEREAS, While Ford touted its purported commitment to
cracking down on this hostile work environment of the 1990s, it
continued to delay firing those accused of harassment, did not
provide adequate sexual harassment training, and failed to
stamp out retaliation against those women who reported

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misconduct, leaving workers to conclude that offenders would go
unpunished; and
WHEREAS, Ford has done little to address the longstanding
culture of sexual harassment at its plants, resulting in
another EEOC investigation, a recent $10 million settlement of
sexual harassment claims, and continuing litigation between
Ford and employees who suffer from this pervasive sexual and
racial harassment; and
WHEREAS, Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant and the Chicago
Stamping Plant, which together employ over 5,700 people, of
which just under a third are women, have been the source of
half of all sexual harassment and gender discrimination
complaints lodged against Ford with the EEOC; and
WHEREAS, Although United Auto Workers (UAW) is the union
entrusted with representing Ford workers in employment
matters, UAW not only breached its duty of fair representation
to women experiencing harassment at Ford's Chicago plants, but
many of the alleged perpetrators of harassment included UAW
representatives and leadership; and
WHEREAS, Harassment victims who sought protection from UAW
were instead rebuked for tattling on a union brother and
putting a man's job at risk, and bullied into tolerating the

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harassment as just another aspect of the job; and
WHEREAS, Neither Ford nor UAW took any action to mitigate
the inherent conflict of interest that arises when both a
victim and the perpetrator of sexual harassment are members of
the same collective bargaining unit and the union must fairly
represent both workers; and
WHEREAS, Many of the known and unknown women who became
victims of sexual harassment throughout their employment with
Ford are Illinois workers who have suffered serious
psychological and physical trauma, economic loss, and
retaliation including loss of their jobs as a result of Ford
and UAW's gross mishandling and failure to eradicate this
impermissible behavior; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL
ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission, the Illinois Department of
Human Rights, and the Illinois Department of Labor to
investigate the culture of harassment at Ford's Illinois
plants, and provide increased support for the brave women who
have come forward to make their voices heard; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we call upon the Governor of Illinois to
review all state contracts with Ford Motor Company for

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compliance with the Illinois Human Rights Act, the Illinois
Procurement Code, and other laws and regulations governing
state contractors; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we call upon the National Labor Relations
Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the
Illinois Department of Human Rights, and the Illinois
Department of Labor to investigate UAW's role in facilitating
the harassment at Ford's Illinois plants, including whether it
breached its duty of fair representation to union members who
were victims of harassment; and be it further
RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
delivered to Governor Bruce Rauner, the Acting Chair and the
Commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,
the members of the National Labor Relations Board, the Director
of the Illinois Department of Human Rights, the Director of the
Illinois Department of Labor, the United Automobile Workers
International Executive Board, and the Board of Directors at
Ford Motor Company.