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Class-Action Race Discrimination Case Filed Against Honda

19 August 1999

Class-Action Race Discrimination Case Filed Against Honda

    COLUMBUS, Ohio, Aug. 19 -- A class-action race discrimination
lawsuit was filed today against Honda of America Manufacturing, Inc. in
federal district court in Columbus, on behalf of all black employees employed
at Honda's Marysville, East Liberty and Anna, Ohio plants.  Attorneys Stan
Chesley and Bob Steinberg of Cincinnati's WAITE, SCHNEIDER, BAYLESS & CHESLEY
said that the lawsuit challenges Honda's long-standing pattern and practice of
systematically excluding blacks from employment opportunities at the three
plants and creating a hostile work environment for black employees, for the
more than two decades the plants have been in operation.
    According to the lawsuit, Honda has long operated under a "buddy system,"
in which upper management consisting only of whites and Japanese managers use
favoritism to decide assignments and promotions, resulting in a glass ceiling
preventing blacks from moving up in the company.
    The lawsuit notes that even as late as 1998, only 3% of Honda's managers
were black, despite the fact that for many years, the percentage of
African-Americans in Honda's overall workforce has been significantly higher.
The lawsuit alleges that this is due to the fact that "Honda has segregated
blacks into the lowest level production jobs, while whites and Japanese
dominate the management positions," the result of a pattern and practice of
race discrimination that goes back many years and continues today.
    The class-action complaint notes that Honda was charged with company-wide
race discrimination by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the
mid-l980's, and that Honda signed a conciliation agreement pledging to hire
more black workers, promote more blacks, and eliminate the hostile work
environment.  Honda, it is alleged, did not abide by that agreement.  The
complaint notes that in 1991, Honda was investigated by the U.S. Congress for
discriminating against blacks.  It is also alleged that Honda's own records
document its discrimination against blacks during the 1990's.
    For more than twenty years, Honda has failed to provide promotions and job
assignment opportunities to African-American employees on an equal basis to
those provided to whites, failed to stop the "buddy system" and its other
subjective employment practices which exclude blacks from management
positions, retaliated against black employees who complained about
discrimination, and created or tolerated a work environment hostile to its
black workers, including use of racial slurs in the workplace, assignments of
blacks to less desirable jobs, and excluding blacks from skilled positions,
the lawsuit says.
    The lawsuit seeks, on behalf of all African-American employees at Honda, a
court order enjoining Honda from continuing its pattern and practice of
discrimination and retaliation, the promotion of qualified black employees,
training for managers, and a system that insures equal employment opportunity
at Honda.