Catherwood LibraryILR School

Four years after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a class action lawsuit against the Dial Soap Corporation on behalf of almost 100 current and former female employees at Dial's Aurora, Illinois factory (see WIT for Jan. 25, 2002), the case is finally headed to trial. With the EEOC seeking damages totaling over $27 million against Dial Corp. the case is the largest since a 1998 case brought against Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America over for sexual harassment at its Normal, Illinois plant and settled for $34 million (see WIT for Oct. 21, 2002). While Dial has refused to enter settlement negotiations and continues to maintain that it will prevail in court, the charges of verbal abuse, obscene gestures, groping, and stalking involve over 25 percent of women employed at the plant since 1988.