News About Harassment
Staff
| Revision History | ||
|---|---|---|
| • December 1991-January 1992 | Newspaper: Funded by Syracuse University students. | |
| The Alternative Orange: Vol. 1, No. 3 (pp. 11) | ||
| • September 3, 2000 | Webpage:  . | |
| DocBook XML (DocBk XML V3.1.3) from original. | ||
In January a U.S. District Court Judge ruled that some 30 pictures at the Jacksonville Shipyards, Inc., constituted sexual harassment of female workers at the shipyard. Some of the pictures displayed women with spatulas pressed against various parts of the anatomy, others showed women with “USDA Choice” stamped on their bodies. The Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union plans to appeal the ruling on the basis of the First Amendment right to free speech — of the corporation rather than of the workers displaying the pictures. Florida ACLU Executive Directory Robyn Blumner says that the First Amendment is “abrogated” unless employers are free to make the decision of what is appropriate in the workplace.
Five female employees of the Stroh Brewing Co. in St. Paul, Minnesota are suing Stroh’s over issues of harassment in the workplace. They note the presence of pictures of nude, spread-eagled women in the plant in which they work, as well as other offensive pictures and lewd graffiti written on the workplace walls. Their suit also accuses the company’s ad campaign ("But when the Swedish bikini team dropped by...") of fostering a climate of toleration of sexual harassment. The company has offered to settle out of court; no mention has been made of altering the ad campaign.
