Chrysler, UAW face sexual harassment suits

TOLEDO, Ohio, July 6 (UPI) -- Chrysler faces a spate of sexual harassment suits filed by workers in its Toledo, Ohio, plant, papers show.

The bevy of harassment charges has prompted the Ohio Civil Rights Commission to probe whether an abusive environment exists at the company's Jeep complex in Toledo, the Detroit Free Press reported Sunday.

In the past four years, nine federal lawsuits have been filed in Toledo against Chrysler regarding sexual harassment at the Jeep plant, and 73 charges of civil rights violations have been filed with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, the newspaper reported.

The 45 civil rights complaints filed in the last 18 months is more than five times the number of charges leveled against General Motors Corp.'s comparably sized operations in the Toledo region, the newspaper said.

Lawsuits, which also list the United Auto Workers as defendants, claim certain supervisors and UAW union leaders used their power to demand sex from female workers in exchange for letting the women keep their jobs or favorable work assignments.

Mike Palese, a Chrysler spokesman, said the automaker has a strict policy against sexual harassment.

"All allegations of harassment are fully investigated, and violations of the policy are punishable up to and including termination," he said.