Subject:  Re: daimler chrysler sex harassment case |
Author:
Chris
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Date Posted: 11/19/04 12:45pm
In reply to:
Chris
's message, "Re: daimler chrysler sex harassment case" on 11/19/04 8:11am
Linda Gilbert: Millwright fought to end harassment
November 16, 2004
BY MARYANNE GEORGE
FREE PRESS ANN ARBOR BUREAU
As a child, Linda Gilbert was drawn to tools, engines and robots the way some little girls gravitate to dolls. Her love of all things mechanical inspired her to follow in her older brother Mike's footsteps to become a millwright.
She knew she would encounter difficulties as a female millwright. She was the only woman in her training program at Macomb Community College in the mid-1980s.
When she signed on at the DaimlerChrysler Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit in 1992, she was the only woman among the 40 millwrights at the plant.
But then, she said, coworkers began taping pornography to her toolbox and subjecting her to other crude taunts.
She filed a lawsuit in 1994 against DaimlerChrysler, claiming sexual harassment. In 1999, a Wayne County Circuit Court jury awarded Ms. Gilbert $21 million in damages, believed to be the largest individual judgment in a sexual harassment case in U.S. history.
The verdict did not stand. Last July, the Michigan Supreme Court struck down the award -- that had grown to $50 million during the appeal process -- and ordered a new trial.
Ms. Gilbert of Roseville died Sunday of a heart attack at St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit. She was 45.
Ms. Gilbert was devastated when the Supreme Court ordered a new trial, her sister Debi Hillock said. She said the harassment and the first trial had taken a terrible toll on her health and she had tried to commit suicide twice.
"After I tried to commit suicide, I decided that God let me get through for a reason," Ms. Gilbert told the Free Press after the 1999 trial. "Maybe it was to show people that you don't have to put up with this. The fact the message was sent to other women and men makes it easier. But would I do it again? I hope no one ever has to do this."
Ms. Gilbert was born in Detroit in 1959, the third of five children. She attended St. Ignatius Elementary School in Detroit and graduated from Lamphere High School in Madison Heights in 1977. She excelled as an athlete, earning trophies in basketball, softball and volleyball.
She attended Northern Michigan University and eventually enrolled in the millwright apprentice program at Macomb Community College.
Despite the difficulties surrounding her lawsuit, she remained at DaimlerChrysler until she became ill about eight months ago, said her sister Cathy Harper.
"She would like to be remembered as a woman who could and a woman who did," Harper said. "She just wanted to work, and the discrimination bothered her so much, she sued. She didn't want the money -- she wanted to prove a point. She planned on giving most of it away to put her nieces and nephews through college and to help animals."
In addition to her brother and two sisters, Ms. Gilbert is survived by another brother, Ken; her father, Earnest; her mother, Madeleine Reinhard; 15 nieces and nephews, and 3 great-nieces and great-nephews.
Visitation will be from 5 to 9 tonight and 1-9 p.m. Wednesday at the E. J. Mandziuk & Son Funeral Directors Inc., 22642 Ryan Road in Warren. The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at the funeral home. Burial will be in White Chapel Memorial Cemetery in Troy.
The family suggests memorial donations to the Michigan Humane Society, 7401 Chrysler Drive, Detroit 48211.
Contact MARYANNE GEORGE at 734-665-5600 or mageorge@freepress.com.
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