ÿortlani» (Observer
luly 20. 2011
Page 9
L aw &J ustice
Meyer
Equal
Opportunity
Commission
takes action
Last week the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Com
mission sued the grocery chain
Fred Meyer for failing to stop a
regular customer from harass
ing female employees.
According to the EEOC’s law
suit, female employees at Fred
M eyer’s Oak Grove store in
Milwaukie, Ore., were sexually
harassed by a custom er who
visited the store almost daily,
sometimes several times a day,
since at least 2007.
Despite numerous complaints
by the staff, the EEOC, which
enforces federal laws prohibit
ing employment discrimination,
said Fred Meyer managers ex
cused the custom er’s offensive
behavior as “hearsay,” even
Fred Meyer management is accused o f failing to stop a customer from harassing female employees
at the Oak Grove store in Milwaukie.
though the women gave first
hand accounts of their experi
ences.
“Fred M eyer’s failure to ad
dress the continued harassment
of
its
e m p lo y e e s
is
inexcus->able,” said EEOC San
Francisco District Director Mike
Baldonado. “This store received
complaints almost on a daily ba
sis about a regular customer re
peatedly touching and groping
its female employees.
According to the EEOC, Title
VII of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 prohibits sexual harassment
and requires employers to take
prompt action to investigate and
to stop the behavior after they
receive complaints.
Laura Morrow, a Fred Meyer
employee since 2002 and one of
the women who brought the case
to EEOC’s attention, said, “I just
want to see to it that this doesn’t
happen to anyone else. Fred
Meyer shouldn’ t have let this hap
pen to any of us in the first place.
I reported this problem time and
time again and they didn’t do any
thing to protect me.”
The law protects against ha
rassment in the workplace, not
only from supervisors and co
workers, but also from non-em
ployees such as customers, ven
dors, contractors and even de
livery persons. The commission
explained they are filing the law
suit against Fred Meyer because
employers are required by law
to report and investigate to take
appropriate action or must face
legal consequences.
“The customer is not always
right,” said EEOC Regional At
torney W illiam R. Tamayo.
Further information about the
EEOC is available on its web
site at www.eeoc.gov.
Minorities Make Up Majority
Census data confims changing social order
(AP) - For the first tim e,
m inorities make up a m ajority
o f babies in the U .S., part o f a
sw eeping race change and a
grow ing age divide betw een
m ostly white, older A m ericans
and predom inantly m inority
youths that could reshape gov
ernm ent policies.
Prelim inary 2010 census es
tim ates also show the share of
A frican-A m erican households
headed by w om en - m ostly
single m others - now exceeds
A frican-A m erican households
with m arried couples, a sign of
declining U.S. m arriages over
all but also o f continuing ch al
lenges for black youths w ith
out involved fathers.
D em ographers say the num
bers provide the clearest con
firm ation yet o f a changing
social order, one in w hich ra
cial and ethnic m inorities will
becom e the U.S. m ajority by
m idcentury.
C u rre n tly , n o n -H is p a n ic
whites make up ju st under half
o f all children 3 years old,
w hereas in 1990, more than 60
percent o f children in that age
group were white, according
to the 2009 annual census sur
vey.
The prelim inary figures are
based on an analysis o f the
C urrent Population Survey as
well as the 2009 A m erican
C o m m u n ity S u rv ey , w hich
sam pled 3 m illion U.S. house
holds to determ ine that w hites
made up 51 percent o f babies
younger than 2. A fter taking
into account a. larger-than-ex-
pected jum p in the m inority
child population in the 2010
census, the share of white ba
bies falls below 50 percent.
T w elve states and the D is
trict of C olum bia now have
w hite populations below 50
percent am ong children under
age 5 - Hawaii, California, New
‘ M exico, Texas, A rizona, N e
vada, Florida, M aryland, G eor
gia, New Jersey, New York
and M ississippi. That's up from
six states and the D istrict of
Colum bia in 2000.
At current growth rates, seven
more states could flip to "minor
ity-majority" status among small
children in the next decade: Illi
nois, North Carolina, Virginia,
Colorado, Connecticut, South
Carolina and Delaware.
By contrast, whites make up
the vast majority of older Ameri
cans - 80 percent of seniors 65
and older and roughly 73 percent
o f people ages 45-64. Many
states with high percentages of
white seniors also have particu
larly large shares of minority
children, including Arizona, Ne
vada, C alifornia, Texas and
Florida.
Kenneth Johnson, a sociology
professor and senior demogra
pher at the University of New
Hampshire, noted that much of
the race change is being driven
by increases in younger His
panic women having more chil
dren than do white women, who
have lower birth rates and as a
group are moving beyond their
prime childbearing years.
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