NAACP condemns racism at the Harley-Davidson plant in Kansas City, Missouri, 2019-05-03



A press conference was held 2019-05-03 by the Kansas City, Missouri, branch of the to denounce a hostile work environment at the  plant in Kansas City. Repeated incidents of racist art included a noose left with a black doll, racist graffiti with s with annotations like, “Die Ni***”. Other incidents included an assault on an African-American employee. Harley-Davidson fired the individual accused of the assault, but he was hired the next day by a subcontractor into a managerial position over the man he allegedly assaulted.



Transcript

 * This transcript should not be considered authoritative; please consult the video in case of questions about what was actually said and correct any errors.
 * You are invited to add links and notes to credible sources. Please post further discussion in additional sections of this article or on the associated “Discuss” page.
 * All additions not written from a neutral point of view citing credible sources may be reverted.

Rev. Dr. Rodney Williams [00:00:00] Good morning. This morning the Kansas City, Missouri, branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is standing with workers from the Harley-Davidson plant right here in Kansas City. The reason that we are standing with these workers at this press conference and workers' testimony event is the result of racially charged hostile work environments at the Harley-Davidson plant. African-American employees of this plant have had to go to work each day in fear of what might happen next. The heightened fear and intimidation with no attempts to correct these actions are inexcusable.

Rev. Williams [00:00:42] African-American workers have gone to work only to find (1) placement of nooses in the women's bathroom. The hanging up a doll of a black woman with a noose along with images of swastikas on the wall of the women's bathroom.

Rev. Williams [00:00:59] African-American employees are subject to racist graffiti in the bathrooms and multiple swastikas and the N-word. They said N-word, die. N-word: Go back to Africa. These are symbols of hate and intimidation that the African-American employees have had to endure and that have forced us to go public with these offenses that have fostered this racially charged hostile work environment.

Rev. Williams [00:01:27] Although of the final days of the planet drawing near, one might ask the question why is the NAACP pressing this issue. Well there are a couple of reasons. First of all the mission of the National Association of Colored People is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race based discrimination.

Rev. Williams [00:01:53] Secondly, we believe that when civil rights issues and race based discrimination are taking place in our surroundings communities, the community at large needs to know, and they need to know who the players are.

Rev. Williams [00:02:08] Third, the Kansas City, Missouri, branch of the NAACP will be communicating with the national office of the NAACP requesting of our national office to enter into communications with the Harley-Davidson corporate headquarters, asking to launch an investigation at all of their other plans across the nation to determine if this racially charged hostile work environment is part of the core culture of Harley-Davidson, or are these events that happened in Kansas City isolated incidents to this plant only.

Rev. Williams [00:02:44] Last but not least, I was standing with these workers and helping workers collectively fight for a hostile-free work and racially-friendly work environment is central to who we are and what we do, is at the center of our deepest moral and faith tradition. Let it be known that the NAACP has and will continue to work in harmony with labor unions, as we have done in the past.

Rev. Williams [00:03:12] At this time I'd like to read a statement from Mr. Fred Redmond, International Vice President of Human Affairs of the United Steelworkers Union. And his letter reads as this: On behalf of the United Steelworkers Union I am very concerned after reading the NAACP press release dated April 30 of 2019 concerning the workers at the Harley-Davidson plant in Kansas City. As I mentioned throughout our telephone conversation, the United Steelworkers does not condone harassment or intimidation of any form and feel very strongly that such actions as indicated in the press release has no place in our workplace but also has no place in our communities. Our union has and will continue to work tirelessly to resist such harassment whenever it exists. We have not found any harassment charges brought to us, but we are willing to work with you to do anything and everything that we can to make sure that our work environments are safe. I appreciate the discussion we had on Wednesday, May 1st, and we stand ready and willing to work with you and the Kansas City NAACP to address the various concerns. If the steelworkers can offer any assistance, please advise us. Thank you for your leadership in addressing these concerns for these, our workers.

Rev. Williams [00:04:45] At this time. We have two individuals from Harley-Davidson plant, two workers, that are going to speak on behalf of the workers. And at that point we'll be open to questions. And I would like to inform the media that I do have pictures. Of the noose and pictures of the words that have been inscribed on the bathroom walls.

Emmanuel Maurice Matthews, Sr. [00:05:21] Good morning. I speak on behalf of all employees.

(questioner) [00:05:27] Your name, sir?

Mr. Matthews [00:05:28] My name is Emmanuel Maurice Matthew, Sr., and I speak on behalf of all the employees from the Harley-Davidson plant. Let me state that we are not actually Harley-Davidson employees. We are contractors for Harley-Davidson. The time that I've been there, it's been just the utmost, it's rediculous. I've been there a little bit over two years. And in the two years that I was there, there were six incidents that, really, I was appalled. Swastikas in the man's restroom. And as the minister spoke about the noose, and I've seen that with my own eyes. And I state that this is 2019. This stuff has to stop. There's supposed to be some equality at this time of day and our age and this life. There should be some equality. Something needs to be done. And with that I'll stop.

Rochelle Anthony [00:06:47] Good morning. My name is Rochelle Anthony. I was the plant union rep. I was a rep there for three years. I worked there for three years. I'm no longer there, but I have witnessed a lot of things going on in there as far as trying to file grievances. We never got our grievances filed. They say they filed them, but they were never filed. We would ask them, "What's going on with the grievances?" "Oh, we're still working on it," or this and that, but we never got a straight answer. So a lot of people, I felt like as a union rep, Why am I a rep? I can't even help these people. I'm trying to help them. I'm trying to go above and beyond to help. And I wasn't getting anywhere.

Rochelle Anthony [00:07:23] So my experience there for three years was about as bad as Mr. Emmanuel's. And like I said, as a union rep, I tried. I tried to help a lot of these people. They came to me with their issues. And it was hard. I felt like I was fighting myself.

Rochelle Anthony [00:07:40] I couldn't help them. So with that being said, it's horrible in there. I'm not there anymore but I heard it's getting worse. So we just need help to make it right. Thank you.

Rev. Williams [00:07:53] At this time, we're open for questions.

(questioner) [00:08:09] Mr. Emmanuel: I'm unclear. Did you work for Harley-Davidson, or did you work for this contractor?

Emmanuel Maurice Matthews, Sr. [00:08:12] I worked as a contractor with a company called Syncreon corporation.

(questioner) [00:08:17] And what does Syncreon do at the plant?

Mr. Matthews [00:08:17] Syncreon is a company that goes in. And what they do is we sequence parts to go to the actual assembly line for the parts to be processed and put on the motorcycles.

(questioner) [00:08:34] And when these incidents took place, did you go to Syncreon or did you go to Harley-Davidson?

Mr. Matthews [00:08:39] Well you've got to follow your chain of command. And being an employee of Syncreon, we had to start with Syncreon.

(questioner) [00:08:51] And did you get any satisfaction from them?

Mr. Matthews [00:08:52] Absolutely not.

(questioner) [00:08:53] Tell me about it.

Mr. Matthews [00:08:53] Well. As Miss Anthony stated, with her being a representative to our reps, to get to the state our claim, she processed it. Nothing was done. Everything was always swept under the table.

(questioner) [00:09:14] Ms. Anthony, I undersand the company said they did handle the grievances, and you say they didn't. How do you know that they didn't?

Rochelle Anthony [00:09:20] Well, we never got an answer back. It was always the same thing. Well we're going to grievance in a week or a month, three months. We never get any results from the previous. No one ever came and said, "Hey, this is what happened." We never got that told to anyone.

Rochelle Anthony [00:09:38] So it was like we were just hunting for answers.

Mr. Matthews [00:09:40] There was never no feedback. Never. I actually filed a grievance in May of 2017 about an issue that went down. And the only thing that was brought to me was that the gentleman was going to be sent to some type of class. I never got no feedback if he actually went to the class. Nothing.

(questioner) [00:10:04] Did anybody ever go to the cops?

Mr. Matthews [00:10:11] I had an assault charge. I really don't want to speak on that right now, because that's something that you deal with.

(questioner) [00:10:21] Did anybody go to the cops and say, "Look, this is taking place in the plant?"

Mr. Matthews [00:10:26] I went.

(questioner) [00:10:29] And?

Mr. Matthews [00:10:31] There was nothing done.

(questioner) [00:10:36] When did you go? Is there a police report?

Mr. Matthews [00:10:39] Yeah, there was a police report. I can't remember right offhand went this was. This was right before I decided to leave myself. So. So. That is something we'd have to take up later.

(questioner) [00:10:50] Approximate time?

Mr. Matthews [00:10:50] (pause)

Rochelle Anthony [00:11:02] There was a time when I tried to file a grievance against my supervisor. And I got nowhere. I was told, "Let's just wait and see if he changes." ... He was screaming and hollering like I was some kid. And I went to him, and went to file a grievance. And I was told, "Oh, let's just wait to see if he changes anything." Never got the grievance.

(questioner) [00:11:23] Can I ask why now, the plant is nearly supposedly going to close pretty soon, why bring this up now?

Rochelle Anthony [00:11:31] A lot of this is just starting to happen.

(questioner) [00:11:33] Oh, some of this is new stuff?

Rochelle Anthony [00:11:36] Yeah.

Rev. Williams [00:11:38] Let me also add that it doesn't really matter when it happens. But the fact that it happened, and we wanted to send the message that we are not going to rightly tolerate discrimination without saying something. And as I made earlier in the statement that we're going to be asking our national if they can get in touch with the corporate headquarters of Harley-Davidson and seek around and all those people to make sure these incidents don't happen again.

(questioner) [00:12:12] Is Ms. Anthony an employee of Syncreon, or

Rochelle Anthony [00:12:16] I was a former employee of Syncren. I'm no longer with them.

Mr. Matthews [00:12:19] Everyone that you see standing here, we either are or were former employees of Syncreon, contractors for Harley-Davidson.

(questioner) [00:12:45] And Syncreon is unionized? You do have a union for this?

Mr. Matthews [00:12:45] Absolutely. In fact there were two unions.

(questioner) [00:12:45] Is it the Steelworkers Union?

Mr. Matthews [00:12:45] The Machinists and the Steelworkers unions.

(questioner) [00:12:45] And so the response you received was from the Steelworkers Union that represents you?

(another former Harley employee) [00:12:51] That represents some of us.

(questioner) [00:13:23] Ms. Anthony, do you think that, because the plant is winding down, that the incidents became more frequent, got more intense, because people thought, well, we're out of here, and the ramifications aren't going to be very great, slight, sort of like the last day of school? People are acting up. It's a poor comparison, but --

Rochelle Anthony [00:13:26] I can't really say, because like I said, the first time I set foot into that plant, we dealt with the same things, the hostility, and everything. And I thought then it was because, hey, we're a contract company, coming in to take over some of the people's jobs. And some of them were being fired. So we dealt with a lot of that at the beginning. But it started dying down as time went by. And, yes, it started right back up as we get close to closing.

Vincent Mohammed [00:14:09] My name is Vincent Mohammed, and I wanted to make sure that this got out, because when I started working there at Harley-Davidson, I had heard of all these horrible things that was taking place. And then when I began to witness them, one of the things that I witnessed that occurred that the swasticas that was written in the men's restroom, it was always attempted to be covered up. When I wrote an official complaint about it. I wrote an official complaint also in regards to the noose. The two supervisors at Syncreon stood before us the very next day and said to us mean and the employees and said to us that the noose had been sent out to forensics for forensic tests on behalf of our safety and security.

Vincent Mohammed [00:15:04] We found out and and later learned that that was a complete outright lie. Now how Harley-Davidson skillfully and wickedly covered up the incidents that occurred to black workers in the plant. There there's a black worker there by the name of Frank who's been there twenty something years. It was a white worker there by the name of Tom. He referred to Frank as the N-word.

Vincent Mohammed [00:15:35] Harley-Davidson fired him for saying that statement. But Syncreon hired him and put him over the grievous position.

Vincent Mohammed [00:15:46] It was a particular incident that happened with Matthews where he was assaulted. He attempted to call law enforcement to report the assault.

Vincent Mohammed [00:15:57] However Harley-Davidson said that he could not do this. Afterwards when he did do it, the very next day the guy that assaulted him was called back to work. There is video footage of him flexing in the hallway mocking this, two security personnel standing there watching this. One of the witnesses of the incident she's sitting in a dining room. This same caucasian who assaulted him walks up to her and tells her to forget what you've seen when she went to report the incident.

Vincent Mohammed [00:16:39] Guess what happened? I'll tell you exactly what happened: It fell on deaf ears and blind eyes and was told to forget about it. Ms. Anthony attempted to use the procedure that we paid our money into and the union to get the proper form to take the necessary step, and she was told by this same man who was promoted by Syncreon, who was demoted and fired by Harley-Davidson.

Vincent Mohammed [00:17:12] And thourgh word of mouth, through a phone call, he called Ms. Anthony, and told Ms. Anthony to tell the woman who witnessed this to forget about.

Vincent Mohammed [00:17:23] So now he is coming forward because God said what ever you do in the dark will come to the light. man. And he said that whenever there are oppressed people, he will always raise one who will come forward. And I believe that's what God chose me to be there for, because it has been so many people have suffered on account of our own skin color helping the situation to try to be better. And it never got better. It only got worse. And we believe in our heart, when we go back to work, Monday, that it will be worse again. And I will only hope that the story that we are saying to you all that you put it out there, and then come back and investigate it. Always Harley-Davidson will always say that these things didn't occur. But is factual. You cannot say that you see handwriting on the wall when you have it black janitorial workers who've told that they can't go in, because the incident is sensitive. How sensitive is it if it keeps occurring?

Vincent Mohammed [00:18:36] It just happened last Tuesday. And when I spoke with one of the Harley-Davidson higher up black managers, his words to me were "Why didn't you come and talk to us about it?" And my answer was, "Why haven't you done anything about it after working here for 20 something years?" And on Dr. King's birthday on a Monday I was blessed to go to the bathroom and get the pictures. And I said to him, "Brother, you should give me what you have, so we could take it and put it into the hands of the right authorities." And his words to me was, "I'm on salary. I can't do that. But what can we do about it?" I said, "We can do exactly what Dr. King did about it. Stay up on the truth and even if it means losing your life. You can not could not continue to go this way.

(another former Harley employee) [00:19:33] Amen.

Vincent Mohammed [00:19:36] Sorry for my passion, but I just could not stand to see people doing these things to us. And we are all young. And those who had passed the mantle to us, like Miss Rosa James. And so many have fought, bled, and died for us to be able to walk down the street.

Vincent Mohammed [00:19:58] And we're still suffering on account of our skin color? We can't accept that no longer.

(questioner) [00:20:08] Can you describe to me the firsthand what you saw? You're gonna supply us with a couple of different images, pictures. What pictures are you willing to supply? You saw the noose or the writing on the wall or both?

Vincent Mohammed [00:20:22] Both.

(questioner) [00:20:23] So you're gonna supply us a picture of a noose in the women's locker room?

Vincent Mohammed [00:20:29] It was in the wheels and tires area. I wasn't working there at the time when the news was in the women's restroom. This happened in 2017.

(questioner) [00:20:39] So there were a number of things that you were shot pictures of that you saw.

Vincent Mohammed [00:20:45] The noose, the writing on the walls as late as last Tuesday, that was right in the same bathroom on the second stall.

(questioner) [00:20:58] And you shot a picture of that?

Vincent Mohammed [00:20:59] Yes sir.

(questioner) [00:21:00] And then you shot picture in the noose, also?

Vincent Mohammed [00:21:01] Yes sir.

(questioner) [00:21:03] OK. And then what other photos do you guys have that you can share with us, and who shot them?

Vincent Mohammed [00:21:08] Well there's a video where the white guy that assaulted Mr. Matthews standing down in the hallway flexing and laughing and the mocking what he has done to him.

(questioner) [00:21:18] And we were going to get that video?

Vincent Mohammed [00:21:21] Well, we're going to give that to our attorney, because all liars like to lie and try to withhold things, ad we know they are lying.

(questioner) [00:21:28] But I guess what I'm asking is what pictures can you guys supply us?

Vincent Mohammed [00:21:32] We can supply you with, the representative has pictures the he indicated that he has.

(questioner) [00:21:38] I know. I understand that. But I'd like for the people that shot the photos if you have if you're here don't you just speak to what you saw. Because we want to be able to show the photo and say "This person saw it with their own eyes."

Vincent Mohammed [00:21:52] Shot he said. We have pictures together news. Yes.

(questioner) [00:21:54] OK, so the noose and the writing on the wall?

Vincent Mohammed [00:21:56] Yes sir. And here's --

(questioner) [00:21:58] Anything else? And you shot both of those?.

Vincent Mohammed [00:22:02] Yes sir.

(questioner) [00:22:03] OK.

Mr. Matthews [00:22:04] I saw the noose with my own eyes. (to another: Go and walk on up.)

Early Robertson [00:22:11] Hello, Sir. How are you doing? My name is Early Robertson.

(questioner) [00:22:16] Tell me what you saw.

Early Robertson [00:22:17] Well, actually I've been here a little bit less time than other people. I've been there for like 15 months. And in the 15 months that I've been there, there were at least three maybe four. I know for sure three instances. Well the last one that I seen, I took pictures. I have pictures out of the noose. I have pictures that the writing on the wall. With one situation it was a just covered with spackle. No intention of covering. Kind of almost like a remembrance. Every time that you go into that stall, you will see that there. It went about 13 to 14 days.

Early Robertson [00:23:01] After the second writing, they covered it. So for 14 days that stall was open for people who to go in and out of that stall to use that stall. So, it's in the back of my mind, remembrance. You know what I'm saying? Of the type of situation that's going on out there at Harley-Davidson, and things that are going on. It's several instances. Right for instance like the situation where Mr. Matthews here? Actually it was a guy that works in our department: He befriended me, you know being social with me? And I asked him: "Hey, Larry, you know what's going on situation where Mr. Matthews?" His exact words were, "Well the people at Harley-Davidson are talking, but it's too much hearsay. He said, she said. So they're not going to do anything about the situation." I said, "What about this guy physically assaulted Mr. Matthews in person and throwing his hands up to him in a gesture or in a fighting manner, like he wanted to harm him?" So I figuring, if nothing's done about that. And I mean situations like myself personally. But I've seen different situations where people have grievances filed and then nothing's done about it. They just cover it up. Everything's always thrown under the rug.

(questioner) [00:24:36] Do you feel that that these acts were directed at you guys being subcontractors, or were there African-American Harley employees that also had these type of things directed at them? Or was it just general?

Early Robertson [00:24:52] From what I've seen, it's been people as a whole. Mainly African-Americans, yes. It's a situations where people have been done wrong.

(questioner) [00:25:07] Were the restrooms for all people whether it be Syncreon or Harley-Davidson?

Mr. Matthews [00:25:13] Supposedly, supposedly. But they would get upset when we used that restroom.

Early Robertson [00:25:19] It's like restrooms in the other side of our work area, where you're not supposed to use these restrooms if you're a Syncreon employee. It's like same with the lunch room, it's kind of like a line that you can't cross. It's problem if you do this.

Early Robertson [00:25:39] In my situation, I worked over in that area. So I would have to go get product from that area. So I kind of couldn't limit my access to that area. So I think other people want to speak.

(questioner) [00:25:52] Just to be clear, then, the pictures that we're about to see, you took those pictures.

Early Robertson [00:26:00] Yes we did. Me and couple other people seen it. Yeah we did.

(questioner) [00:26:05] You took those pictures.

Early Robertson [00:26:06] Yeah I've got them personnally on my own phone.

Ulysses Smith [00:26:07] I My name is Ulysses Smith, and I work for Syncreon. I'm a forklift operator there. I've been there almost two years, actually a little bit over two years.

Ulysses Smith [00:26:22] There was a song in particular I was played constantly, that most people don't understand the meaning behind it. The name of the song is "The Chain gang". They continuously played that song after we told that it was offenive, because they didn't know the meaning behind the song. They made us feel uncomfortable to work and walk in the plant.

Ulysses Smith [00:26:51] They would have all type of things that you wouldn't imagine that would happen. Like we're talking about the bathroom stalls: Right now, I walked in the back and looked. They screwed in eight screws to three, to two different stalls in the back. We can't use them.

Ulysses Smith [00:27:09] They're just constantly doing things to make the workplace environment unbearable.

(questioner) [00:27:17] Was this "Chain gang" part of a rotation whenever someone gets a rotation because a certain parts of a song that if you continuously play it you will understand what they're doing.

Ulysses Smith [00:27:30] Specifically Rochelle. She was our union rep, and they decided to play this continuously after we told them that we have people who were offended by this song. Because they have been in a jail. They have tried to put their life back on track, and they continuously played this song for months. All we ask them to do is to stop playing the song and play something else. They test the bikes out to hear the system. All they had to do was put something else on there. Nothing was ever done.

Ulysses Smith [00:28:09] I feel that they were doing more harm to us by not coming to us and understanding that we did not want that.

Rev. Williams '[00:28:20] We have one other question.

(questioner) [00:28:22] I was just wondering if there's any data available on turnover rate in that plant, of whites vs. people of color?

Rev. Williams '[00:28:32] We don't have that information. Anybody that wants to speak with any of these workers feel free to do so. We're happy to keep the church open, but we are concluding the press conference at this time. Thank you so much for coming out.

(questioner) [00:28:46] Can I try to get your name? I don't know if we got your name.

Rev. Williams '[00:28:47] Reverend Doctor Rodney Williams. Thank you.