Whirlpool plays dirty

The short version (emergency appeal to bloggers)
My wife an attractive 40-year-old was fired from her job, based solely on the accusation from her 50-year-old supervisor that she had sexually harrassed him. This supervisor had already made an innapropriate comment toward my wife, and has before had an affair with a married woman under his authority. Because sexual harrasment is considered "gross misconduct" our health insurance was terminated immediately. We, however, were not informed of this until today, two weeks later, when we called to arrange for COBRA payments. We have two children with a rare congenital condition which requires frequent doctor visits and daily medication. because of their condition, one of us had to stay home. Linda got the insurance, so I became Mr. Mom. This can be a very serious condition, Our little girl had to be rushed to the emergency room just three weeks ago, simply from wearing herself out on a sleepover at a friend's house.

We are making an appeal to raise funds to cover medical expenses for our children until we can either resolve this, or find insurance, and with serious pre-existing conditions, that won't be easy. We've already had to miss labs requested by their pediatric endochrinologist because of uncertainty about our health insurance. At the top of the page, in the sidebar is a donation button where you can assist via PayPal.

The long version
 My wife, Linda Carlton, worked for Tulsa's Whirlpool plant for over 10 years. The reason she took the job in the first place is because we have two children with a rare congenital condition that requires frequent doctor visits and medication so we needed the insurance. We just got an emergency room bill for my daughter's trip there three weeks ago, for almsot $900. Since one of had to stay home with our children, I have been able to build up businesses on the internet to match roughly a third to a half of her income. They are fairly solid and growing, but are still inadequate to cover our financial needs. I also created and manage the most visited site on the internet for the congenital condition my children have. Visitors to the site have told me that the information and communication channels I provide have saved numerous lives. The site is and always has been a work of charity.

In December my wife's immediate supervisor make an innapropriate remark of a romantic nature to her. He had in the past had an affair with a married woman who worked under him, and in spite of it being against company policy and in spite of him taking little effort to hide it, he was able to continue with the affair until this woman finally left. She is willing to testify to the facts of his involvement with her while she was employed there. Apparently fearing that his pecadilloes were about to catch up with him, my wife's supervisor initiated a campaign of harrasment immediately after she rebuffed his advances. She was hauled into Human Resources and warned to "keep her conversation professional" as if somehow she had been the one targeting him.

Last month Linda spent a week in Phoenix, Arizona on a company sponsored Habitat for Humanity build, the second one she's gone on. She spent the week helping to build houses which were all far larger than the one we ourselves live in. Before she left to go to Phoenix, though, she had an urgent question regarding the trip and tried to contact her supervisor. She eventually tried to see if she could reach him at home, but not exactly sure of his number she left messages in hopes that it was the right one.

Only a few days after returning from the trip, she was once again hauled into Human Resources, this time with the absurd claim that her phone calls constituted "insubordination" and "sexual harrasment", and was fired on the spot. The phone messages themselves, were never offered as proof, since they contained nothing remotely resembling sexual harrasment.

We attempted to go through the company's appeals process, but it quickly became apparent that it serves solely as a delay and annoy tactic to make the fired emplyee give up and not challenge the decision. When the company refused to allow me to accompany my wife to the second meeting, we told them continuing would be fruitless. Ultimately they ignored any and all salient factors and simply rubber-stamped the decision. Even the final appeal, to a "peer" review committee would have been stacked with buddy's of Linda's former boss and a handful of waged employees, too afraid for their jobs to go against the company.

The financial situation we are trying to deal with by raising money via our blogs. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

The insult to my wife's character we are also using the internet to address, by making public the way a corporation, Whirlpool, that makes roughly $18 billion a year treats the women who work for them. Whirlpool boasts of their "diversity networks" to ensure better treatment of various groups such as women, Blacks, Native Americans, etc. But in 2005 Whirlpool settled a class action lawsuit filed by a number of Black applicants who claim they were denied employment because of their race. Now we are seeing that they seem to be allowing an atmosphere of intimidation and hostility toward women, leaving them vulnerable to the sexual whims of their supervisors.

Whirlpool insists that the "perception" of this supervisor in and of itself is adequate "proof" to accuse my wife of sexual harrasment. What do you percieve Whirlpool is actually doing? You can let them know by calling or emailing...

Whirlpool Tulsa
Phone: (918) 274-6000 (leave a message for Jim Gifford)

Whirlpool Corporation
Phone: (269) 923-5000
Internet: http://www.whirlpoolcorp.com/general/contact/default.asp

Posted by Danny Carlton at June 5, 2007 4:57 PM