Mitsubishi Hires Ex-Labor Secretary

Facing government and private lawsuits alleging hundreds of incidents of sexual harassment, Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America announced Tuesday that former U.S. Secretary of Labor Lynn Martin has been hired to review workplace environment issues at the company’s Normal, Ill., factory.

But the company gave no indication that it will try to settle charges brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or three private lawsuits brought by a total of 30 women employed at the plant.

“We know some cases happened, but not on the scale as publicized,” said Tsuneo “Tim” Ohinouye, chairman and chief executive of the Japanese conglomerate’s American auto-making subsidiary. Martin is not investigating those specific allegations.

EEOC officials said the agency would be glad to offer technical assistance but also had concerns that Martin’s talks with Mitsubishi workers might give “an appearance of intimidation,” in the words of Cynthia Pierre, deputy director of the agency’s Chicago district office.

“There’s nothing wrong with Lynn Martin or her staff talking to women or to plaintiffs or to potential witnesses,” Pierre said, “but without court supervision, no one will know what questions they ask or what is said to them.”

Patricia Benassi, who represents 28 women who filed suit against Mitsubishi in 1994, said: “We’re still in what I call the propaganda stage. This is show business.

“If they really wanted to resolve this, they would sit down with the EEOC and they would sit down with us. We’d have lots of ideas for them,” Benassi said. “‘Lynn Martin, no matter how well-intentioned she is, isn’t going to solve anything.”

At a Chicago news conference, Martin said she realized her hiring could look like a public relations ploy. “To every doubter, to every derider, I say, ‘I understand,’ ” she said. “If I were reading [about her consulting project], I think I would too.”

She said: “This may sound corny, but Tim and I have pledged our honor to each other. . . . This is my honor too.”

Martin, a moderate Republican who represented northwest Illinois in Congress and served as labor secretary under President Bush, repeatedly refused to disclose how much Mitsubishi is paying her.

“Exactly what they would pay a man,” she said, adding later: “This is serious stuff and it’s going to cost seriously to make it better.”

She said she expects to have ready within a year a plan for preventing and rooting out harassment and discrimination.