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Sex
probe of water district urged
Chicago Tribune -
11/5
Two Metropolitan
Water Reclamation District commissioners are calling for a
full-scale investigation into sexual harassment allegations made
by a group of African-American female employees.
At least eight
women say they have filed internal complaints and one has a
pending federal lawsuit alleging a pattern of sexual harassment by
colleagues and supervisors. Many of the women are laborers in the
district's suburban water treatment plans.
Last week, the
Cook County sheriff's office investigated a bomb threat against
one woman, Neshawn Moore, a laborer in the southwest suburban
Stickney plant. An item made to look like a pipe bomb was
discovered beneath her car, said Cook County sheriff's police
spokeswoman Penny Mateck. Moore said she believed the threat was
retaliation for a lawsuit she filed in federal court against the
water district in June.
Moore, 31, was
one of more than a dozen African-American women who gathered
outside of district headquarters Monday at 100 E. Erie St. to
bring attention to their allegations, which they say have been all
but ignored by district management.
"I don't
want to sleep with anybody to get promoted," Moore said.
District
Commissioners Patricia Young and Barbara McGowan said they were
outraged that administrators never brought the allegations to
their attention and called for full investigations. McGowan, the
lone black female commissioner, said she thought an independent
investigation would be the most effective way to attempt to
resolve the discontent.
"I think
that's the only way to do it, because right now these women don't
believe they are going to be heard by the district," McGowan
said.
Young said she,
too, supports the women and is upset that administrators never
told her and McGowan about the allegations and that none of the
women approached commissioners themselves.
"If they
feel they're being harassed and that they're being unfairly
treated, I'm willing to go to [Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission officer] Frances Wilkins' office with them," she
said. "They should be able to come forward without fear of
retribution."
General Supt.
Jack Farnan, reading from a prepared statement, said he could not
comment on some of the women's claims because they were pending,
but emphatically denied there was a pattern of sexual and/or
racial discrimination against black female employees at the
district.
"The
district will continue to investigate and enforce its policies
against harassment and discrimination, and would reiterate to its
employees that any such inappropriate conduct should be reported
immediately," Farnan said.
Farnan tried to
read his statement in front of district headquarters after a
handful of the women, calling themselves "Women for Equality
Now," gave tearful testimony about their experiences. But he
was shouted down by chants of "apologize" by activists
who swarmed him.
In the confines
of a conference room, Farnan read responses to allegations made by
three women interviewed in a Sunday WMAQ-Ch. 5 report. The women,
including Moore, said they had been subjected to everything from
name-calling and sexual advances to inappropriate touching by
co-workers and supervisors.
Farnan
acknowledged that two women had filed complaints and that
"wrongful conduct could not be conclusively
established," in either case. The district made reassignments
so the employees would have no further contact with the allegedly
offending co-workers. Another woman, Farnan said, had her EEOC
complaint dismissed. He said other cases were still pending. The
Cook County sheriff's office has opened a criminal investigation
of the Oct. 29 bomb threat against Moore, Mateck said.
At Monday's news
conference, Saleema Ali, a Stickney laborer, said that last
December her supervisor touched her genitals and was transferred
after she complained.
She said his
presence in the same building has created a tense environment, but
she said she was told that because there had been no witnesses to
the incident, she did not have a credible claim.
A water district
spokeswoman did not return phone calls seeking information about
the number of pending internal and EEOC complaints, but many of
the women who testified Monday said they had pending claims.
Moore, who has
worked at the district's Stickney plant since 1998, alleges in her
lawsuit that male co-workers and managers have repeatedly made
sexual comments, exposed their sex organs to her and engaged in
sexually graphic conversations about her.
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