Last week the EEOC issued a press release that they had filed a class action lawsuit against “New Prime, Inc.” known to truckers simply as “Prime” and yet another sponsor of the non-profit organization “Women in Trucking“.

How many times lighting has struck this organization who claims their “Mission” is to “encourage the employment of women in the trucking industry, promote their accomplishments and MINIMIZE OBSTACLES faced by women working in the trucking industry.”

The massive CRST expedited cases which we have covered here. Duke’s V. Walmart, that by some stroke of fate the WIT organization aquired a sitting male board member from Walmart and a corporate sponsorship prior to the announcement that case would be heard by the Supreme Court, and now Prime, who seems to have acknowledged there are issues by placing a female student on a truck with a male trainer.

The Prime solution? Female students can only be trained by female trainers.

Sounds easy enough except Prime did not have as many female trainers as they were hiring female students so they fired them or put them on hold until they went elsewhere. Sounds like an obstacle to me. Not only an obstacle for women who are trying to enter trucking but makes it darn near impossible to promote their accomplishments if they cannot even get out of the gate from the carrier terminal to learn.

According to the EEOC what Prime has done violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits sex discrimination in hiring and terms and conditions of employment.

On the surface this issue seems to have caused some confusion in the trucking world because indeed more female trainers are needed and it is true that entering Women will be safer with another Woman. It is not 100 percent though because Women DO harass Women.

The problem in trucking is there is very little harassment or personal conduct guidance AT ALL, for ANYONE, combined with the greed fueled “Truck Driver Shortage”, the environment is one of poor training, poor recruiting, a shortage of qualified trainers of both genders and an abundance of students who were sold a bill of goods to coax them to enter the industry.

Let me translate the issue with “Prime” in this hypothetical manner:

What if: An African-American was hired by New Prime, Inc. in order to meet diversity quotas but then told the student trucker that they could not be trained by a White person and would have to wait without pay for an African-American Trainer to become available? What if the student is NOT told that there will not be any African-American trainer to come get them because the carrier does not employ enough to meet the degree in which they hire African-American trucking students?

Would that sound right to you? I certainly hope not ….

By having these unmatched students on hold without pay two things occur. They become disgusted, quit and go to another carrier or in some of these cases; the carrier fires them when they cannot provide a trainer they knew they never had. The carrier appears to be attempting to diversify the fleet but actually they are setting the stage for these students to disqualify themselves or simply let them go after wasting their unpaid time.

The case by the EEOC against New Prime, Inc is for back wages and damages.

It is true there is danger for Women entering trucking at the hands of truck driver trainers but violating the civil rights code is not the way to solve it. There are good male trainers and bad female trainers. The problem is not gender specific.

The problem is poor leadership in the carriers, a lack of conduct and harassment training overall, little oversight or accountability.
New Prime, Inc recognized the problem and decided to put a band-aid over a gaping wound.

I became aware of the initial case in December of 2009. I directed public questions to the WIT organization about why they were not becoming involved in this issue to MINIMIZE OBSTACLES for Women who were being encouraged to enter trucking.

I was told by WIT Director Marge Bailey in March 2010 that President Ellen Voie was contacted by Paul Taylor from the “Truckers Justice Center“. It was he who had filed the original discrimination complaint. I was advised by the WIT director that: “neither Prime nor the woman suing them are members of WIT therefore it is a lawsuit outside of our organization and like any other association WIT represents their members.”

Following the posting of the Prime discrimination case on the “Women in Trucking” Facebook page on September 23, 2011 Ellen Voie was asked if Prime was a sponsor and she replied: “No, they are not a sponsor. They are a member, however, as any company or individual can be a member by paying dues.”

A play on words? or did they become involved with the organization after there was an awareness of impending litigation?

We have seen it before from this organization and the conversation on Facebook only became more heated when President Ellen Voie was pressed about the content in her “FREE to member sponsors Anti-Harassment Employment Guide”.

Apparently this trucking women’s advocate is not aware that most carriers already have a harassment policy because it is the law. They simply fail to inform, enforce and manage their own policies.

When Allen Smith of “Ask the Trucker” asked about the content of the guide which has reportedly been guarded from view to even the “WIT Driver’s Advisory Board” , Ellen Voie explained that the guide was a benefit for WIT members (Corporate Members that is) she pointed out that WIT is a non-profit association. (One in which she doubled her salary last year) she went on to note that truck drivers make up only 20% of the WIT membership which is LESS than 2% of their (her) income.

According to Ellen Voie, Corporate members fund the WIT organization and should have a reason to join with member benefits designed for them. She said: “Drivers have their own member benefits, such as the Salute to Women behind the Wheel.”

Gee Thanks Ellen! I’d rather spend $1000 of my own money to travel to Louisville Kentucky each March and wear a WIT T-Shirt for a picture and free potato chips rather than being educated on how not to be raped or discriminated against by one of your carrier member sponsor funding sources any day!

If you are not in the trucking industry your head is probably spinning at the degree of ignorance we have in leadership positions but if you are in trucking this is the norm so there are very few who will stand up and say this is wrong. Believe it or not, there are more than a few Women who will defend this line of reasoning as well but they are the minority but strategically placed corporate apologists.

Selling the personal safety of Women to the highest bidder? That is what corporate level sponsorship means correct? I can think of a 4 letter word that begins and ends with a “P” right about now.

It seems Ellen Voie does not give away freebies willingly so she should be able to appreciate that these female students were employed by New Prime, Inc and expected to receive a paycheck. If you are a female affected by this practice of New Prime, Inc. based in Springfield, Missouri I encourage you to contact Jan Shelley at the EEOC (314) 539-7918 to file a complaint about this carrier.

Paul Taylor, of the “Trucker’s Justice Center” , the Lawyer who filed the initial New Prime, Inc. Discrimination case will be at the 1st Annual Truck Driver Social Media Convention in Tunica, MS on Oct. 15th.

REAL Women in Trucking is a PROUD Sponsor of this event hosted by Mr.& Mrs. Allen Smith of the “Ask the Trucker” and “Truth about Trucking LIVE” blog talk radio program.

It is my sincere hope that more people in and around the trucking industry begin to wake up to what is occurring with regards to women being LURED into an industry that is utterly unprepared for their arrival.
I look forward to meeting those who wish to RAISE the low standards in trucking in Tunica, Mississippi on October 15, 2011.

Technorati Tags: Allen Smith, CRST, Discrimination, EEOC, Ellen Voie, Inc., New Prime, Paul Taylor, Social Media, Trucking, Walmart, Women in Trucking