Female Hardhat Files $20 Million Lawsuit Against JP Morgan Chase

[FlushingExpress]

From The Daily News:

 

Hardhat Bianca Wisniewski says she broke through the construction industry's glass ceiling, only to hit the concrete wall of sexual harassment - and she's suing for $20 million.

 

Wisniewski, 43, sued JPMorgan Chase and others in Manhattan Supreme Court Monday for a harassment campaign she says began when she took over as safety coordinator at the company's 270 Park Ave. construction site in 2007.

 

Wisniewski "is a rare exception who broke through the concrete and steel," lawyer Steven Wittels wrote in court papers. "But the male-centric brotherhood struck back at Ms. Wisniewski and quickly sealed the breach."

 

Wisniewski says elevator operator Steve Greco groped and propositioned her while her bosses brushed off her claims.

 

"I was begging for help, but nobody helped me," Wisniewski told the Daily News.

 

Greco harassed Wisniewski with lewd come-ons that repulsed the widowed mother of two teenage daughters, the suit charged.

 

"I just want to take you to dinner, no f------," she says Greco told her while grabbing her around the waist.

 

"Everybody kisses engineer Steve," the suit quotes Greco as boasting. "This is a man's world, not a place for women to work."

 

When approached at the Park Ave. construction site yesterday, Greco claimed he'd never heard of Wisniewski before walking away.

 

"What?" Greco said. "I don't know her. I don't know what you're talking about."

 

Wisniewski says a white man took her safety coordinator's job after she complained to her bosses in October 2007.

 

Following a period on disability, she says she was fired from her job with Total Safety Consulting of Long Island City, Queens, two months ago.

 

A spokeswoman for JPMorgan Chase could not be reached for comment. Also named as defendants are Total Safety, Greco and his Queens-based union, the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 14.

 

The Polish native from Flushing, Queens, said she thought she'd landed her dream job with Total Safety after working in the environmental field for several years.

 

She hoped her success in an industry dogged by several high-profile worker fatalities would show her daughters a woman could survive in a male-dominated field.

 

"I worked very hard to be in this field," Wisniewski said.

 

"I loved working in the field, watching the building grow. Every day when everybody goes home and everybody is safe, it's a good thing."With Kerry Burke

 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/07/20/2009-07-20_bianca_wisniewski_.html#ixzz0LwKiAJQs

 

 

This lawsuit hit me hard. I feel very sorry for Mrs. Wisniewski. She worked really hard to be safety coordinator of a male-dominant workforce. To me, JP Morgan fired her and replaced her with a male coordinator when this issue arose so they could cover up the case and not have to worry about anymore complains of sexual misconduct. It makes me wonder two things:

 

1. are some workplaces discriminating based on gender?

2. if i to work at a female-dominant workplace (which i really would like to), does that increase my chances of something like this happening to me as well?

 

tell me, what is your opinion on this lawsuit?

[Messino]

tell me, what is your opinion on this lawsuit?

 

This woman is going to make mad cash and is going to because of what just happened with the cleaning lady found in the ceiling mudered by the elevator man . Whether its true or not who knows.