More Than A Tune-Up

At Martin's prodding, Mitsubishi has launched 34 detailed reforms, with strict deadlines for each. Some, like ""Update the employee handbook annually,'' are no-brainers. But others will profoundly change what it means to work at Mitsubishi--especially for women. Requirements that supervisors rotate between day and night shifts will be softened, making it easier for women with children to advance. Pretax payroll deductions for child care now lower the cost burden on working mothers. After many employees told a polltaker hired by Martin that they thought promotions were handled through an old boys' network, the company began posting job openings on bulletin boards.

Mitsubishi has focused its most intense scrutiny not on line workers but on their supervisors. Martin says her original plan, which she now calls naive, was to try to change male employees' attitudes toward women. She later chose to steer the company toward harder-edged incentives: strict punishments for wrongdoers and financial rewards for bosses who crack down on harassment. ""Changing attitudes is wonderful if you've got 40, 50, maybe 1,000 years,'' Martin says. ""But if you want to see improvements before you die, you have to change behavior.'' Workers must attend eight hours of anti-harassment classes, but supervisors now must spend 99 hours learning how to curb misbehavior and resolve conflicts, among other skills. Managers' raises will be based in part on how they've handled harassment issues. The point is to reach the work force through newly sensitized supervisors who have plenty to gain if their subordinates shape up--and plenty to lose if they don't.

Yet for all the company's efforts, some women say not enough has changed. Many remain afraid to complain when things get out of hand. They've seen other women ostracized, or threatened, for speaking up. At the same time, there's no unanimity about what should be done. Some say they don't want their harassers fired, because even jerks have children and mortgages. They volunteer that this is, after all, a factory floor. ""I just want him told he needs to have a little more respect for his co-workers,'' ""Cathy'' says of one man. Others complain that some men don't take lesser discipline seriously. ""I'm right back where I was,'' says ""Beth'' of her tormentor, a man who, the company assures her, has been sanctioned for his acts. ""He's still here, and I'm still in a hostile environment.'' As for the training classes, Beth says she's heard some smart alecks say, ""Now I know how to do it and not get caught!''

Mitsubishi responds that eradicating harassment will be a long slog. ""We have turned a corner, but we're still a work in progress,'' says Gloria-Jeanne Davis, who was hired from a local university's affirmative-action program to run a new company office that investigates harassment complaints. ""We have zero tolerance, but I don't want that confused with zero occurrences.'' Davis's frustration is that more women won't trust her enough to complain. She can't always recommend instant punishment, she says, because allegations must first be verified. Nor, for liability reasons, can Mitsubishi publicize the names of employees and their punishments. These legal niceties keep some women in the plant from knowing that in addition to the 16 firings, men have had pay docked, job grades reduced and career paths imperiled by formal findings of harassment.

Mitsubishi says it now resolves 97 percent of all complaints within 30 days. Some move much faster. Kim Kinder, a nine-year veteran of the company, complained to her supervisor several weeks ago about harassment by a co-worker. The supervisor contacted Davis's office. After witnesses corroborated Kinder's charge, the alleged offender was moved to another work area the next morning. Davis's office even called Kinder to double-check that the problem had been resolved. Kinder says she's pleased with a response that was both thorough and fast. She adds that she likes her job and the others in her group. ""Most people have common courtesy,'' she says. ""If you find something offensive, they excuse themselves and the conversation goes on.''

Kinder's experience shows what can happen when a worker and a company take on a common foe. But the EEOC, which views much of the effort at Mitsubishi as mere lip service, says there's been too little of that. ""We continue to receive complaints about sexual harassment and retaliation at the plant,'' says John Hendrickson, the agency's regional attorney in Chicago. Nor can Mitsubishi shake its run of bad PR. Late last month came the embarrassing resignation of its vice president for human resources, Art Zintek. He'd been brought in only six months earlier to help implement reforms. Zintek's departure spawned press reports speculating that he had met resistance. But a source at the plant says the veep left for more complex reasons, some of them personal. Zintek told NEWSWEEK that he isn't at liberty to discuss his resignation.