NOW Will Picket Mitsubishi Dealership

Local members of the National Organization for Women will picket a Van Nuys Mitsubishi dealership Thursday as part of an international effort to focus public attention on the extensive sexual harassment that the federal government says has occurred at Mitsubishi’s assembly plant in Illinois.

In April, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed one of the largest sexual harassment cases ever brought by the government. Authorities charge that for years, hundreds of female assembly line workers at the Mitsubishi plant near Normal, Ill., were routinely groped and subjected to unwanted sexual graffiti and lewd comments by male co-workers and supervisors.

The local demonstration will begin at 5 p.m. in front of Miller Mitsubishi on Van Nuys Boulevard, said Tricia Oeser, treasurer of the San Fernando Valley / Northeast Los Angeles chapter of NOW.

“We are not calling for a boycott,” Oeser said. “We just want to bring attention to this matter. We want people to contact Mitsubishi and say this behavior is not acceptable and to tell EEOC to keep doing what they are doing.”

Thursday’s action is timed to coincide with a Mitsubishi stockholder meeting in Tokyo. Similar demonstrations will occur at Mitsubishi and Chrysler dealerships throughout the United States, as well as at the Illinois plant, which also makes three Chrysler models.

The government allegations have been denied by officials at Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America, who say that long-standing policies have effectively prevented sexual harassment at the company.

Mark Miller, president of the Miller Automotive Group, which operates several auto dealerships in Nuys and Santa Monica, said he was not aware of “any local activity” in reaction to the problems at the Illinois factory.