The debate over what passes for the ordinary in Normal, Ill., wasn’t allowed to slip back into obscurity by the events of last week.
On Monday, some 3,000 workers from the Normal auto assembly plant of Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America Inc. traveled to Chicago on buses at company expense to demonstrate outside the regional offices of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The federal agency had filed a class-action suit against Mitsubishi charging pervasive sexual harassment at the plant. EEOC officials said the suit was filed because it was clear that the company had no intention of settling the charges outside of court.
But, by Thursday, Tsuneo Ohinouye, the company’s chief executive, was telling the New York Times that Mitsubishi “from the beginning had a settlement in mind” and had no intention to fight or attack the EEOC.
That came as news to other company officials, and the EEOC said it hadn’t heard from Mitsubishi about a settlement.
