By Miles Maguire
A Calumet County woman has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Pacur LLC, the Oshkosh plastics company with ties to Republican Senator Ron Johnson.
The woman, Angela Valley, said she was hired at Pacur in September 2019. Her lawsuit alleges that she was subjected to illegal discrimination and harassment, including vulgar text messages from coworkers who made unsolicited sexual advances.
Despite complaining to Pacur’s human resources department, Valley said the company had taken no remedial action.
Instead, company officials “met with Valley’s witnesses and asked them to sign nondisclosure agreements prohibiting them from speaking about the events they witnessed,” court records said.
“While Pacur does not comment on human resources issues, Pacur can assure you that it takes all discrimination issues very seriously,” said Barry Johnson, CEO of the company, in an email. “According to law and policy, Pacur has fully investigated all such complaints in the past and has done so with the involvement of the former employee whom you referred to in your message to us.”
Barry Johnson is the brother of the Republican Senator, who sold his stake in the company in March 2020, according to his financial report.
Senator Johnson and his wife continue to receive substantial income from Pacur, making between $ 100,000 and $ 1 million a year, according to financial reports. They own a limited company that owns Pacur’s Moser Street factory, valued at $ 5.9 million.
The Senate Administration did not respond to a request for a statement.
According to Valley’s lawsuit, she was training to be a machine operator and was assigned to a crew where she was told that her boss “made female members of his crew do the least desirable jobs to get them to quit.”
For example, according to court records, she had to scrub the doors and walls of the company’s shipping and receiving docks.
“Valley’s male co-workers deliberately messed up (like dumping rubbish on the floor) and asked Valley to clean it up,” stupid bitch, “Valley told Valley that no one liked her and that she would never get the same salary as her,” it says in the court record.
Neither Valley’s manager nor Pacur’s human resources department took action to deal with their complaints, the lawsuit said.
But after Valley complained, she was demoted to cleaning staff and had to work split shifts seven days a week. “The split shifts required Valley to be off work for approximately four and a half hours between shifts,” the lawsuit states.
Eventually she was given leave and then released, the lawsuit says.
Valley claims the downgrading, leave of absence and firing was “because it spoke out against discrimination and harassment in the workplace.”
In March, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission gave her the go-ahead to file her lawsuit.
She demands “lost wages, lost services, expenses, damages, punitive damages as well as attorney’s fees and costs,” according to the court file.
Comments are closed.