Picketers at Mitsubishi Dealers Protest Alleged Sex Harassment

About 50 picketers waved signs and shouted slogans as they marched outside a suburban Washington car dealership Saturday to protest alleged sexual harassment at a Mitsubishi assembly plant near Normal, Ill.

The demonstration was one of several planned for this weekend in Marlow Heights; the Chicago area; Peoria, Ill.; Joliet, Ill.; Sacramento; Las Vegas; and Saginaw, Mich.

“We think that public pressure is building,” National Organization for Women President Patricia Ireland said as she led the protest in Marlow Heights. “We’ll be gradually turning up the heat.”

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a class-action suit on behalf of current and former female employees of the auto maker who say they were sexually harassed at the Illinois plant.

The commission and the auto maker began talks Friday.

Jesse Jackson, head of the Operation PUSH and National Rainbow Coalition civil rights groups, last week asked consumers to stop buying Mitsubishi cars until the company settles the suit.

In a statement released Saturday, Mitsubishi said the company that oversees Mitsubishi dealerships is a separate subsidiary of Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America Inc., which runs the Illinois assembly plant.

“The actions on the part of NOW, the National Rainbow Coalition and Operation PUSH against Mitsubishi Motors’ dealers are premature and ill-advised,” the statement said.