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March 1, 2002/Adar 17, 5762, Vol. 54, No. 24
Former Nissan employee charges anti-Semitism
LEN GUTMAN
Special to Jewish News
The ongoing saga of a lawsuit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against Pinnacle Nissan added a new chapter last week as another former employee alleged he was a victim of anti-Semitism and witnessed a pattern of racism at the dealership.
Leonard Wechsler of Scottsdale, worked as a car salesman at Pinnacle Nissan from May through September. Wechsler, who is Jewish, said in a Feb. 14 deposition that he was fired for complaining about anti-Semitism and racial name-calling at the dealership.
If the EEOC agrees to add Wechsler to its case against Pinnacle, originally filed in September 2000, he would be the tenth plaintiff.
"This didn't happen to Lenny Wechsler until ... a year after this company had been sued for discrimination and anti-Semitism by the EEOC, so that makes it especially appalling," said Phoenix attorney Stephen Montoya, who is representing Wechsler as well as others involved in the original claim. "You'd think they would have cleaned up their act a year after they had been sued ... by the federal government."
Wechsler, who also worked as a salesman at ABC Nissan from February 1998 to October 1999, filed a discrimination charge against Pinnacle Nissan with the EEOC Feb. 21 and is hoping to be added as a plaintiff to the September 2000 claim. If he does not become part of that claim, Montoya said, Wechsler would file suit on his own.
Pinnacle Nissan and ABC Nissan, as well as a number of other Valley dealerships, are operated by the Automotive Investment Group, a Kansas City, Mo., firm that owns a nationwide chain of car dealerships. The dealership's attorney, Lonnie Williams, said he has not yet seen the claim but that the dealership has programs in place to deal with racism and discrimination.
"Pinnacle's position is that the only way any employer can prevent discrimination of any kind is if every employee and every manager basically says, 'I'm not going to tolerate it,' " said Williams. "We require all our employees to report discrimination and improper conduct, and we have given them various methods to do that, including doing it anonymously. We have gone back and reviewed our records, we've talked to the people at issue, and Mr. Wechsler never made any complaints during his employment."
Williams said Wechsler signed documents when he was hired indicating he was made aware of the company's policy on discrimination and also viewed a videotape about how to file an internal complaint.
"We believe we've done everything we could to inform an employee of what they have to do to combat discrimination, and he never utilized it," he said.
In his EEOC charge against the dealership, Wechsler said he thinks he was fired because Pinnacle was afraid he was going to complain about anti-Semitism. Asked why Wechsler was fired, Williams refused to comment, saying only that "Pinnacle normally does not discuss personnel matters publicly."
Wechsler said he witnessed a lot of racism when he worked at the dealership, including numerous comments directed at customers. He said he knew the Pinnacle dealership had a pending EEOC suit when he went to work there after being out of the car sales business for a while, but he didn't investigate it because he needed a job.
"Right through the door they made my life miserable," Wechsler said. "I was being belittled by the general sales manager, who called me a 'kike.' "
On Sept. 17, the eve of Rosh Hashana, Wechsler said, he had approval to leave early for the holiday, and when he walked past the dealership's conference room he saw on an easel board the words "Lenny is a Jew" written in red letters.
"I ripped it off the easel, wrapped it up and got the hell out of there as fast as I could," he said.
A few days later, Wechsler said, he was terminated for being absent from work. According to the EEOC claim, he maintains the dealership discriminated against him because he was Jewish, a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The September 2000 EEOC complaint included charges of anti-Semitism, as well as claims of inflammatory remarks about Arabs, blacks and Hispanics.
Sam Einhorn, who is also Jewish, worked at Pinnacle Nissan and is a plaintiff on the September 2000 EEOC complaint. He compared his experience working there "like working at a concentration camp."
Einhorn said he was the company's top salesman in the country when he received a bonus check as a member of a so-called "Heavy Hitter's Club." He told Jewish News he was encouraged to open the check in front of his co-workers, and when he did, read the words: "Welcome to the Heavy Hitler's club."
"We complained and it never got better, and it wasn't just directed at Jews," said Einhorn. "If you weren't White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, you were abused."
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