Chrysler workers tell of hearing racist remarks

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By Abdon M. Pallasch
Legal Affairs Reporter

January 28, 2004

A DaimlerChrysler financing manager in Chicago used racial slurs against African Americans, according to sworn statements in a federal lawsuit.

Other sworn statements taken but not released as of Tuesday reportedly will show that he and other Chrysler officials asked the race of applicants before deciding whether to finance cars.

The former Chrysler official, who no longer works for Chrysler, was angry to learn a few years ago that employees got Martin Luther King Day off, according to one sworn statement.

"Hey, let's shoot four more and give us the whole week off," the manager said, according to James Schultz, who still works for DaimlerChrysler. "That was the most distasteful thing I ever heard the gentleman say."

Schultz and another employee, Tim Devine, testified they routinely heard the manager use foul terms about African-Americans.

"He'd say 'n-----,' he'd say 'shine,''' Schultz said.

"He said, 'n-----s lie,' " Devine said. He also used variations of Italian and Yiddish rude terms for African Americans, they testified.

"It highlights the use of abhorrent, extremely racist language at the highest levels of Chrysler Financial's Chicago zone," said Chris O'Hara, attorney for Gerald Gorman, one of those suing DaimlerChrysler. Gorman is married to Cook County Board member Liz Gorman.

"The tone was being set from the top," said Eugene Pincham, another lawyer suing the company.

Chrysler spokesman James Ryan said he had not yet seen the depositions released Tuesday and could not comment, but he said, "We said from the beginning, we do not tolerate racial discrimination of any kind. Our lending policy is colorblind."

Gorman, who sued Chrysler saying the company forced him to close his Dodge of Midlothian and Marquette Chrysler-Jeep stores because he blew the whistle on racism at Chrysler, said he felt vindicated by the testimony.

"Are you here to sell cars or run the KKK?" Gorman said he felt like telling one finance manager.

Chrysler's lawyers told U.S. District Judge Wayne Anderson last year that they had interviewed these employees and they "categorically" denied having heard the racist statements. They claimed "financial mismanagement" at Gorman's dealerships.

These depositions refute that, Gorman and O'Hara said.

A coming deposition reportedly quotes a Chrysler credit analyst asking just two months ago whether an applicant was white.

In the companion suit to Gorman's filed by Pincham and others, African-American car buyers claim Chrysler turned them down for loans because of their race. The sworn statements will be used in both suits.