EEOC: Downstate Company Has Never Hired A Woman Miner
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago office of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is poised to take the next step in its lawsuit against a downstate mining company that lawyers say hasn't hired any female miners - ever.
As WBBM Newsradio's Steve Miller reports, EEOC Chicago office attorney Ethan Cohen is now in the pre-trial discovery process in the commission's suit against Mach Mining in downstate Marion.
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"They've never hired a female into a mining position," Cohen said.
Cohen says 44 women are part of the lawsuit.
"A large number of them are experienced miners. The others have mining certificates. They've gone to school in southern Illinois so they could work in the mines," Cohen said. "And they're doing it because this is just about the highest paying job in the area."
Altogether, Cohen says, Mach Mining has more than 160 employees, most of them in mining positions, and none of them women. The plaintiffs say they are being denied the opportunity to use their skills.
"They are women who want to be able to support their families and so they're willing to do this incredibly difficult and dangerous work, and yet they're not being given that opportunity," Cohen said.
Cohen says Mach Mining opened in 2006, and never even built facilities for women at the mine.
He was at Daley Plaza Tuesday - as women demonstrated on Equal Pay Day - promoting equal pay for equal work.
An attempt to reach Mach Mining late Tuesday was not successful.
