3M's Discrimination in Aberdeen - Exposing Injustice
The story 3M doesn't want you to hear
3M’s Discrimination in Aberdeen
discrimination
/dis·crim·i·na·tion/
noun
1. the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of ethnicity, age, sex, or disability.
Ex. "victims of racial discrimination"
Similar: prejudice, bias, bigotry, intolerance
We’re not asking you to take our word, we have the proof.
Listen to 3M management excuse their employees using racial slurs towards John Wingo, one of the victims in this case. Is “He’s not calling you that every night” an acceptable response?
Discrimination in Aberdeen:
The Story 3M Doesn’t Want You to Hear
Put yourself in the shoes of a black man working at a 3M plant in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Your coworkers unleash a barrage of racial slurs, degrading you with the most vile words imaginable. Shockingly, when you bring this to the attention of 3M Supervisors, General Managers, Human Resources, and even all the way to corporate, their response is a dismissive excuse: “He’s not calling you that every night at work… I know he’s done it in the past.”
But the torment doesn’t stop there. Picture your coworkers openly mocking and dehumanizing you by reenacting a lynching, boldly proclaiming that “they need to bring back the good old days.” You muster up the courage to report this disturbing behavior to 3M management, desperately seeking justice, yet their response is deafening silence. They turn a blind eye to your pain.
And then, the unthinkable happens. You find yourself physically assaulted at your workplace, right in front of 3M management, all because you had the audacity to report a coworker who called you a “monkey.” But instead of holding the real perpetrators accountable, you become the target of disciplinary action. The injustice is beyond comprehension.
As if that weren’t enough, imagine two of your coworkers following you to your home and launching a brutal attack. Filing a police report and informing 3M management should provide solace, right? Wrong. Shockingly, 3M management decides to keep your attackers employed, allowing them to remain in the same area as you. Day after day, you must confront your tormentors as they continue their campaign of harassment, intimidation, and racial slurs.
You gather every ounce of strength to address the issue with supervisors, presenting eyewitnesses to corroborate your claims. But instead of finding support, you encounter an insidious system that not only turns a blind eye but actively encourages further harassment. To add insult to injury, you are chastised for prioritizing your safety by taking leave. The very people who should protect you have abandoned their duty.
In the end, 3M betrays you. Instead of using a fraction of their 8+ billion dollars in revenue to safeguard you from discrimination and harassment, they choose to terminate you. Their actions speak volumes: mistreated, threatened, and physically assaulted by their own employees and management, you are discarded without a second thought.
These heart-wrenching stories are not isolated incidents. They represent just one case among a growing number of individuals who have suffered mistreatment and discrimination at 3M’s Aberdeen plant. This site, stained with multiple violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) – including Section 1981 – the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and several South Dakota State statutes, stands as a chilling testament to the erosion of basic human decency.
3M Blames Victims of Harassment
If you’re a victim of harassment at 3M, it’s your fault.
That’s the stance taken by 3M Management.
Listen to this clip, from an audio recording of a meeting between 3M victim John Wingo, 3M’s Human Resources Manager, and 3M’s plant general supervisor.
3M Doesn’t Want to Hear About Problems
If you try to let 3M Management know you’re still being harassed and threatened after they “took care of the problem” the response is to shout in your face. This clip is from an audio recording of a meeting between 3M victim John Wingo and 3M plant management.
The NAACP’s Minnesota/Dakotas Area State Conference Supports Our Cause
View their letter of support, here.
Common Discriminatory Actions at 3M Aberdeen Include:
- Dismissing complaints regarding coworker’s rampant use of racist, derogatory terms and actions.
- Instructing employees to leave information about racial slurs and other harassment out of official statements.
- Directly participating in harassment and bullying by leaking private medical records, contents of confidential reports, and subject matter of sensitive HR meetings.
- Retaliating against employees for bringing issues of harassment and racism to the attention of management.
- Retaliating against employees for having injury-related work restrictions and further injuring employees by ignoring doctor’s orders, punitively placing them on duties they were not cleared for.
- Refusing to compensate minority employees properly for time worked.
- Obstructing minority employees’ attempts to receive certification training required for advancement within the company while having those same individuals train new non-minority workers who would quickly become certified.
3M's Witness Intimidation
3M wants to bury this story so badly they have their high-powered attorneys harassing our witnesses. These attorneys have written to witnesses with blatant lies in an attempt to convince them that they are the targets of a lawsuit rather than witnesses to 3M management’s discrimination and harassment.
We’re not just making claims, we have the proof.
