Ford plant worker in Chicago ‘was raped by her supervisor’ – explosive lawsuit

A Ford factory worker has charged six male executives in Illinois with rape and assault in an explosive lawsuit filed this month.

The woman claimed she was “sexually harassed by various managers, supervisors and colleagues” during her years of service at Ford until she was fired for complaining.

She is one of more than three dozen women who have come forward in recent years — alongside similar cases dating back to 1995 — to complain of sexual abuse and toxic factory culture.

Her attorneys Keith Hunt and Delaney Hunt have requested a jury trial Ford Motor Company for an undetermined amount of damages, court documents show.

The suspects in the court documents include supervisors Will Robinson, Jerardo Harris, Sean Brown and Ron Woods, along with her colleagues Torry Burrel and George Fields.

Ford has been contacted for comment – and said in an earlier statement that it is committed to ensuring equal employment opportunities.

The woman claimed she was “sexually harassed by various managers, supervisors and colleagues” during her years of service at Ford until she was fired for complaining.

The woman has accused Robinson of flashing her and forcing her to perform oral sex with the threat of being fired if she refused in December 2020.

In the same month, Robinson also allegedly arrived at her home uninvited, forced her into her bedroom, and raped her.

According to court documents, she was “crying and visibly upset,” after which Robinson asked if she was “okay” — but when she said she wasn’t, he continued the assault.

He allegedly told her he was returning from “a little vacation” after another female employee “tried to report him for sexual harassment.”

She called Robinson’s girlfriend and told her what had happened, and shortly after Robinson confronted her in the workplace and “punched her across the face,” according to the court documents.

He then called a colleague to ‘pick me up before I get arrested’.

In January 2021, Woods allegedly “grabbed, groped and assaulted” the woman as she left Labor Relations, where she had just filed a complaint against Robinson.

She said she pushed him away and asked him his name, to which he replied, “YYou will remember my name – it belongs to Ron Woods.

The woman has also said that Harris made “unwelcome sexual advances,” and when she rejected him, he threatened to terminate her employment.

Burrel forcefully kissed and groped her, and when she complained, he had his wife, who is also a supervisor at the plant, subject her to increased scrutiny of her job performance, according to court documents.

Fields is listed among those she said exposed their genitals to her.

The document adds that once, when she was in the lunchroom, he turned off the light and grabbed her from behind and pushed her onto a table, causing her to in imminent fear of being raped or enduring another serious bodily injury’.

She complained to Sean Brown, who ran the internship program she was on, but he later sexually harassed her between March and June 2019, the lawsuit says.

Ford terminated her employment in recent years, reportedly “in retaliation for her complaints,” accusing her of assaulting Robinson – which she has denied.

The court document notes that “sexual harassment, gender discrimination and retaliation have long been widely recognized issues for women” working at the Ford plant in Illinois.

The court document notes that “sexual harassment, gender discrimination and retaliation have long been widely known issues for women” working at the Ford plant in Illinois

Ford paid millions of dollars to settle women’s claims.

In 1995, nine people sued Ford for sexual harassment, sex discrimination, racial discrimination, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress by battery and negligence conservation.

Two years later, in 1997, 14 women filed a class action lawsuit against the company alleging sexual harassment.

In response to these cases, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) launched an investigation into Ford and concluded that women at the Illinois plant’subjected to sexual harassment by managers and non-managers’.

“The women have been called names such as b****es, wh***s and offensive references to female genitalia,” the EEOC said at the time.

“They were physically touched, grabbed and groped, and they did have body parts massaged without their consent.

“They’ve had to endure sexual slurs and innuendo, including suggestive references to female body parts and their functions.”

It added that “pornographic material” such as calendars and nude photos of women at the factory also added to the “hostile and sexually offensive environment.”

More than 30 women also complained of sexual harassment at the Ford plant in 2014, with several more similar complaints filed in 2020.

This time, the EEOC noted that managers had subjected African-American employees to “racial harassment,” as well as women who experienced sexual harassment, according to court documents.

Ford has been contacted for comment – and said in an earlier statement that it is committed to ensuring equal employment opportunities.

“Ford is fully committed to equal employment opportunity and diversity at all of its facilities across the country,” the company told The New York Post.

“Ford adheres to a comprehensive and zero-tolerance anti-harassment policy: Harassment and discrimination are completely against our culture and cannot be tolerated.

“When complaints of harassment, discrimination or other misconduct are made, it is our policy to promptly investigate and deal with these complaints as warranted.

“Ford cannot comment on specific lawsuits or personnel matters at this time.”