NAACP press conference on racism at Kansas City Harley-Davidson plant: transcript

Key points

• The NAACP says Black workers at the plant faced a noose, a hanged doll, swastikas and racist graffiti in restrooms.
• The NAACP gave four reasons for acting, including asking its national office to press Harley-Davidson headquarters to investigate its other plants.
• A letter from a United Steelworkers vice president said the union does not condone harassment and is willing to work with the NAACP.
• Contract workers said grievances brought no feedback, and a union rep said she could not help the people who came to her.
• One speaker said a worker who used a racial slur was fired by Harley-Davidson and then hired by the subcontractor, and an assault on a Black worker was covered up.
• Workers described a song played repeatedly after they objected, and said they would supply photos of the noose and graffiti.

Chapters

1. 0:00NAACP opens press conference on hostile work environment
2. 3:02Steelworkers union letter and first worker statements
3. 7:54Questions on contractor, grievances and police report
4. 13:48Account of cover-ups and an assault at the plant
5. 19:58Photos of the noose and graffiti, and worker testimony
6. 26:17Repeated song complaint and closing questions

Full transcript

0:00Good morning. This morning, the Kansas City, Missouri branch of the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, are standing with workers from the Holly Davidson plant right here in Kansas City. The reason that we are standing with these workers at this press conference and workers' testimony event is the result of racially charged, hostile work environments at the Holly Davidson plant. African American employers in this plant have had to go to work each day in fear of what might happen next.

0:35The heightened fear and intimidation with no attempts to correct these actions are inexcusable. African American workers have gone to work only to find one placement of nooses in the women's bathroom. The hanging of a doll of a black woman with a noose along with images of spot stickers on the wall of the women's bathroom. African American employees were subject to racist graffiti in the bathroom, multiple spot stickers, and the N-word that said N-word, die, N-word, go back to Africa.

1:12These are symbols of hate and intimidation that the African American employees have had to endure and that has forced us to go public with these offenses that has fostered this racially charged hostile work environment All the final days of the plan are drawing near. One might ask the question, why is the NAACP pressing this issue? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First of all, the mission of the National Association of the Massive of Dakota People is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination.

1:54Secondly, we believe that when civil rights issues and race-based discrimination are taking place in our surrounding communities, the community at large needs to know and they need to know who the players are. Third, the Kansas City News Grant of the NAACP will be communicating with the National Office of the NAACP requesting our national office to enter into communications with the Harley Davidson corporate headquarters asking him to launch an investigation at all of his other plans across the nation to determine if this racially charged hostile work environment is part of the core culture of Harley-Davidson or are these events that happen in Kansas City isolating incidents to this plant only. Last but not least, Our standing with these workers and helping workers collectively fight for a hostile, free work and racially-friendly work environment is central to who we are and what we do, is at the center of our deepest moral and faith tradition.

3:02Let it be known that the NAACP has and will continue to work in harmony with labor unions as we have done in the past. At this time, I'd like to read a statement from Mr. Fred Redman, International Vice President of Human Affairs of the United Steelworkers Union, and his letter reads as this. On behalf of the United Steelworkers Union, I am very concerned after reading the NAC press release dated April 30th, 2019, concerning the workers at the Harley-Davidson plant in Kansas City.

3:40As I mentioned during our telephone conversation, United Steelworkers does not condone harassment or intimidation of any form, and feel very strongly that such actions as indicated in the press release have no place in our workplace, but also has no place in our communities. Our union has and will continue to work times to resist such harassment whenever it exists. We have not found any harassment charges brought to us, but we are willing to work with you.

4:14To do anything and everything that we can to make sure that our work environments are safe. I appreciate the discussion we had on Wednesday, May 1st. And we stand ready and willing to work with you and the Kansas City NHDP to address the various concerns. If the steel workers can offer any assistance, please advise us. Thank you for your leadership in addressing these concerns for these, our workers. At this time, we have two individuals from Harley-Gabritson Plant, two workers, that are going to speak on behalf of the workers.

4:55And at that point, we'll be open to questions, and I would like to inform the media that I do have pictures of the news and pictures of the words that have been inscribed on the bathroom walls. Good morning. I speak on behalf of our employees. My name is Emmanuel Maurice Matthews Sr.

5:32And I speak on behalf of all the employees from the Harley Davidson plant. Let me state that we are not actually Harley-Davidson employees. We are contractors for Harley-Davidson. The time that I've been there, it's been just to the utmost, just ridiculous. I've been there a little bit over two years, I was there a little bit over two years. And in the two years that I was there, there were six incidents that when I was, you know, I really was appalled.

6:11Swastikas in the men's restroom, and as the minister spoke about the news, and I see that with my own eyes. And I state that this, this is 2019. This stuff has to stop. There's supposed to be some equality at this time of day in our age, in this life. There should be some equality. Something needs to be done. Thank you very much.

6:47Good morning. My name is Rochelle Anthony. I was the Plant Union Rev. I've been a rep there for three years. I've worked there for three years. I'm a little longer there, but I have witnessed a lot of things going on in there as far as trying to foul grievances. We never got our grievances fouled. They say they fouled them, but they were never fouled. When you ask them, hey, what's going on with the grievances, oh, we're still working on it or this and that, but we never even got a straight answer. So a lot of people I felt like as a union rep, why am I a rep? I can't even help these people. I'm trying to help them. I'm trying to go above and beyond the help.

7:20And I wasn't getting anywhere with them either. So my experience there for three years was about as bad as Mr. Emanuels. And like I said, I tried. I tried to help a lot of these people that came to me with their issues. And it was hard because I felt like I was fighting myself. I couldn't help them. So, with that being said, it's hard going there, and I'm not there no more, but I heard it's getting nervous, so we just need help, just make it right.

7:54At this time, we'll open for questions. Mr. Manuel? I'm unclear. Did you work for Harley-Davidson or did you work for this contractor? I worked as a contractor for the company called Syncreon Corporation. Okay, and what does Syncreon do at the plant? Syncreon is a company that goes in and what they do is we sequence parts to go to the actual assembly line for the parts to be processed and put on the motorcycle.

8:34And so when these incidents took place, did you go to Syncreon or did you go to Harvey Davidson? Well, you've got to follow the chain of command. And being an employee of Syncreon, we had to start the Syncreon. And did you get any satisfaction from them? Absolutely not. Tell me about it. Well, as Ms. Anthony stated, with her being a remedy to our reps to get to state our plan, she processed them, nothing was done.

9:09Everything was always swept under the table. Ms. Anthony, I understand the company says that they did handle the grievances. And you say they didn't, how do you know that they didn't? We never got any answers back. It was always the same thing. When we go into grievance in a week or a month or three months, we never got any results from grievances. No one ever came and said, hey, this is what happened in the grievance. We never got that told to anyone. So it was like we were just hunting for answers, but we never gave them.

9:41There was never no feedback. Never. I actually filed a grievance in May of 2017 about an issue that went down. And the only thing that was brought to me was that the gentleman was going to be sent to some type of class. I never got no feedback. If he actually went to the class, nothing. Did anybody go to the cops? Thank you. Thank you. I had an assault charge.

10:16I really don't want to speak on that right now because that's something that we deal with. Did anybody go to the cops and say, hey, look, this is taking place in a place to plan? I went, I'm sorry, I went, and there was nothing done. So, when did you go? Was your police report? Yeah, there was a police report. I can't remember right off hand, but this was right before I decided to leave myself. So, that is something that you have to come in to take over to your time. Approximately time.

10:54There was a time when I tried to follow grievance against my supervisor and I got in the room and I was told let's just wait and see if he changes his way. He was screaming and hollering me like I was some kid. And I went to the upper end to follow grievance and I was told let's just waiting to see if he changes anything. Never got to grievance. Can I ask why not quite a human supposed to be a ghost person? Why grievance up now?

11:31A lot of it is just starting to happen. Oh, some of this is for you, sir. Yeah. And let me also add that it doesn't really matter that it happened, but the fact that it happened, and we want to send a message. That we are not going to right and tolerate discrimination without saying something, and as I made earlier in the statement, if we're going to be asking our national if they can get in touch with the corporate headquarters of Holly Davis and C. Brown and all those people to make sure that these incidents don't happen in their other places.

12:12Is Anthony an unemployed at C. Brown? I was a former employee of Sancrion. I don't know what you think. Everyone that you see standing here, we were all former, either our or former employees of Sancrion. Contractors of 400 days. And Sancrion is unionized. Do you have a union for them? Absolutely not. As a matter of fact, there are two of these. And is it the steel workers union that you mentioned? We have two of them.

12:42We have a machinist and a steel worker. And so the response you received was from the Steelers Union that represents you, that represents some of us. Ms. Andy, do you think that because the plant is winding down that the incidents became more frequent or got more intense because people thought, well, you know, we're out of here?

13:15The ramifications aren't going to be very slight, you know, sort of like the last day of school when you, you know, people racking up, it's a poor comparison, but, you know, I can't really say because, like I said, the first time I stepped foot into that plan, we dealt with the same things, the hostility and everything, and I thought then it was because, hey, we're a contract company coming in to take over some of the people's jobs and some of them are getting fired, so we dealt with a lot of that at the beginning, But it started dying down as time went by.

13:48And yes, it started right back up and came close to this, yes. Roger, would you like to hear this? Thank you. This shows the grievance procedure. I want you all to put this on record. My name is Vincent Muhammad. And I wanted to make sure that this got out, because when I started working at Harley-Davidson, I had heard of all of these horrible things that was taking place.

14:21And then when I began to witness it, one of the things that I witnessed had occurred, that the swastikas that was written in the men's restroom. It was always attempted to be covered up. When I wrote an official complaint about it, I wrote an official complaint also in regards to the news. The two supervisors at St. Brian stood before us the very next day and said to us, meaning the employees, and said to us that the noose had been sent out to forensic for forensic testing on behalf of our safety and security.

15:04We found out and later learned that that was a complete outright lie. Now, one incident, how Holly Davison skillfully and wickedly covered up the incidents that occurred to black workers in the plant, There's a black worker there by the name of Frank who's been there 20-something years. It was a white worker there by the name of Tom. He referred to Frank as the N-word.

15:35Harley Davidson fired him for saying that statement, but Synchrion hired him and put him over the grievous proceedings. It was a particular incident that happened with nephews where he was assaulted. He attempted to call law enforcement to report the assault. However, Harley Davidson said that he could not do this afterwards. When he did do it, the very next day, the guy that exalted him was called back to work. There's video footage of him flexing in the hallway, mocking this, two security personnel standing there watching this.

16:19One of the witnesses of the incident, she's sitting in a dining room, this same Caucasian who assaulted him, walks up to her and tells her to forget what you've seen when she went to report the incident. That's what happened. I'll tell you exactly what happened. It fell on deaf ears and blind eyes and was told to forget about it. Ms. Ethley attempted to use the procedure that we paid our money into in the union to get the proper form to take the necessary stuff.

17:01And she was told by this same man who was promoted by St. Brion, who was demoted and fired by Holly Davison. And through word of mouth, through a phone call, he called Ms. Anthony and told Ms. Anthony and told the woman who witnessed this to forget about it. So now he's coming forward because God said whatever you do in the dark will come to the light. And he said that whenever there are oppressed people, he will always raise women who will come forward.

17:37And I believe that's what God chose me to be there for because there has been several people have suffered on account of our own stem color, having a situation to try to be better, and it never got better. It only got worse. And we believe in our heart, when we go back to work money, that it will be worse again. And I will only hope that the story that we are saying to you, Mom, that you put it out there and then come back and investigate it. Always, Harley Davidson will always say that these things didn't occur.

18:18But it's factual. You cannot say that you see handwriting on the wall and you have black janitorial workers who've told that they can't go in because the incident is sensitive. How sensitive is it if it keeps occurring? It just happened last Tuesday. And when I spoke with one of the Harley-Davidson hired a black man, His words to me was, why didn't you come and talk to us about it? And my answer is, why haven't you done anything about it after working here for 20-something years? And on Dr. King's birthday on the Monday, I was blessed to go in the bathroom and get the pictures. And I said to him that, brother you should give me what you have so we can take it and put it into the hands of the right authorities and his words to me was I'm on salary I can't do

19:21that but what can we do about it I said we can do exactly what Dr. King need about it stand up on the truth and even if it means losing your life you cannot continue to go this way man and I'm just damn mad sorry for my passion but I just cannot stand to see people doing these things to us as we are all young and those who have passed the mantle to us, like Ms. Rosa James. And so many have fought, played, and died for us to be able to walk down the street.

19:58And we still suffer. On account of our skin color, we can't accept that no longer. Can you describe to me firsthand what you saw? You're going to supply us a couple different images, pictures. What pictures are you going to supply? You saw the news or the writing on the wall or both? Both. So you're going to supply us a picture of the news in the women's locker room? Yes. No, it was in the wheels and tires area. I wasn't working there at the time when the news was in the women's restroom.

20:37This happened in 2017. But tell me about those things that you shot pictures of that you saw that you didn't show us. The noose, the writing on the walls, as late as last Tuesday, that was writing in the same bathroom on a second stop. And you shot a picture of that? Yes sir. And then you shot a picture of the noose also? Yes sir. Okay. And then what other photos do you guys have that you can share with us and who shot that?

21:08Well, this is a video where the white guy that they saw that Mr. Matthews standing in the hallway flexing and laughing and mocking what he has done to him. And we're going to get that video? Well, I'm going to leave that to our attorney because all lawyers, like a lion, try to withhold them and we know they're lying. But I guess what I'm asking is, what pictures can you guys supply us? We'll supply you with a representative that has pictures that he said he indicated that he has and where they have it.

21:39Well, no, I understand that. But I'd like for the people that shot the photos, if you're here, to speak to what you saw, because we want to be able to show the photo and say, this person saw it with their own eyes and shot it. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We have pictures of the noose. Yes, sir. Okay, so the noose and the right under the wall. Yes, sir, and here's the burden. Anything else? Those two. Yes, sir. And you shot both of those? Yes, sir. Okay. I saw the news with my own. Go ahead and walk one of them. Yes, sir. Good.

22:11Hello, sir. How are you doing? My name is Charlie Longridge. Tell me what you saw. Well, actually, I've been there a little bit less kind than other people have been there. I had been there for about 15 months, and in the 15 months that I were there, there were at least three, maybe four, I know for sure, three instances. Well, the last one that I seen, I took pictures of it. I have pictures of the news. I have pictures of the writing on the wall with one situation.

22:47Just covered with spout, no intention of covering, kind of almost like a remembrance of every turn that you go into that stall, you would see that there. It went about 13, 14 days. After the second writing, they covered. So before, I mean for 14 days, it went up where that stall was open for people to go in and out of that stall, to use that stall. So, it's in the back of my mind, in remembrance, you know what I'm saying, of the type of situation that's going on out there, and the things that's going on, it's several instances.

23:29Like, for instance, like the situation, Mr. Matthews here, actually it was a guy that works in our department. Like when I asked, you know, he called himself your friend to me, you know, being social with me, and I asked him, I said, hey, Larry, you know, what's going on with the situation with Mr. Matthews? His exact words were, well, the people in Harley Davidson are talking. But it's too much hearsay, he say, she say, so they're not going to do anything about the situation.

24:05I said, what about this guy physically assaulting Mr. Matthews and pushing him in his back and throwing his hands up to him in a gesture or in a fighting manner like he wanted to harm him. So I'm figuring there's nothing done about that. And I mean, from situations, I'm not going to accept placement, but I've seen different situations where people have careers as filed, and it's actually done without it. They just covered it up. Everything's always thrown under the rug.

24:36Do you feel that these acts were directed at you guys being subcontractors, or were there African American Harley employees that also have these types of things directed? Or was it just general? From what I've seen, it's been people as a whole. Managing African Americans, yes, but people as a whole. It's been situations where people have been done wrong.

25:07Were the restrooms for all people, whether it be Zinkron or Harvey Davidson? Supposedly. Supposedly. But they would get upset when we used that restroom. It's like, it's like mushrooms. Over on the other side of our work area, where you're not supposed to use these restrooms if you're a Cydrion employee. It's like, same with the work. It's kind of like a line that you can't cross, where it's a problem if you do this.

25:41In my situation, I worked over in that area, so I would have to go get product from that area, so it kind of didn't limit my access to that area. Thank you very much. Just to be clear then, the pictures that we're about to see, you took those pictures? Yes, we did. Thank you. Me and a couple of other people. Okay, but you took those pictures. We're just trying to authenticate them. I got a person in my home. Hi, my name is Melissa Smith, and I work for Synchron, and I'm a forklift operator there.

26:17I've been there almost two years, actually a little bit over two years almost. There was a song in particular that was played constantly that most people don't understand the meaning behind it. The name of the song was a chain thing. They continuously played the song after we told them that it was offensive because they didn't know the meaning behind the song. They made us feel uncomfortable to work and walk.

26:51They would have all type of things that you wouldn't imagine that would happen. Like, you're talking about the bathroom stalls. Right now, I walked in the back and looked, they screwed in eight screws to two different stalls in the back. You can't use them. They're just constantly doing things to make the workplace environment unbearable. Was the song You Chained Dan part of a rotation?

27:21It's a rotation because there's certain parts of the song that if you continue to play it you'll understand what you're doing. Specifically, Rochelle, she was our unit group, and they decided to play this continuously after we told them that we have people who are offended by this song, because they have been into the jail, they're trying to get their life back on track, and they continuously played the song for months.

27:54All we asked them to do was to stop playing the song and play something else. They test the bikes out to secure their speaker systems. All they had to do was put something else on them. Nothing was ever done. I feel that they were doing it. More harm to us by not coming to us and understanding that we did not want that. That's what I have to say. We have one other question that we're going to have. I was just wondering if there's any data available on the turnover rate at that plant of whites versus people of color.

28:34We don't have that information. Anybody that wants to speak with any of these workers, feel free to do so. We're happy to talk about it, but we are continuing press conference at this time. Thank you so much for coming out. Can I get your name on the phone, Reverend? Reverend Dr. Rodney Williams. Thank you.

Source and licence

Recording: File:NAACP condemns racism at the Harley-Davidson plant in Kansas City, 2019-05-03.webm by DavidMCEddy (2019-05-06), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0. The transcript, summary and chapters on this page are shared under the same licence (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The transcript is machine speech-to-text by the TidyTools Audio & video transcriber; the summary, key points and chapters were written by Claude from that transcript. Both may contain errors: check the recording before quoting it.