The 15-year employee claims he heard nothing for three weeks after being removed
General Motors is facing allegations that its HR team fired a long-tenured Black employee without conducting an investigation or following established termination protocols.
The lawsuit, filed January 27 in federal court in Michigan, accuses the automaker of racial discrimination after a 15-year employee was removed from a Kentucky assembly plant and left in the dark for weeks about why he lost his job.
Jerry Mathis worked as a line technician at GM starting in 2008, maintaining what he describes as a spotless record with no write-ups or negative reviews. In 2019, he accepted a temporary assignment at GM's Bowling Green facility in Kentucky rather than face a layoff during a shutdown at his home plant in Warren, Michigan.
Then, on February 13, 2023, Mathis was abruptly removed from the Kentucky plant. No one told him why.
What followed, according to the lawsuit, was a cascade of procedural failures that HR professionals would find troubling. Mathis says he heard nothing about his termination for three weeks, even though the company's agreement with the United Auto Workers requires employees to receive a copy of any disciplinary layoff within three days. The union was also supposed to be notified within one working day of a discharge. That did not happen either, the lawsuit claims.
When Mathis reached out to his union chairman on March 1, 2023, he was told the union knew nothing about any incidents involving him.
Two days later, Lynn Herron, GM's human resources representative at the Kentucky plant, finally made contact. She informed Mathis he had been accused of sexually harassing and assaulting a woman at work. The only paperwork he received was a single handwritten form signed by Herron.
The lawsuit claims GM never conducted an internal investigation. Meanwhile, union representative Chuck Davenport reviewed Mathis's complete disciplinary file and found it clean. By October 2024, Davenport had recommended full reinstatement. Herron did not follow the recommendation, and Mathis remains terminated.
The lawsuit also alleges that Herron has faced previous complaints from employees about making racially charged comments at work.
Mathis points to what he sees as a glaring double standard. He claims white employees at the same facility were allowed to return to work after violent incidents or were transferred to other plants when HR issues arose. He was simply let go.
The case raises uncomfortable questions for HR leaders about what happens when termination procedures are not followed, when investigations are skipped, and when union agreements are ignored. For a company the size of General Motors, the exposure is significant.
Mathis is seeking compensation for lost wages, benefits, emotional distress, and damage to his professional reputation. He is also asking for punitive damages, arguing that GM acted with reckless disregard for his civil rights.
GM has not yet responded to the lawsuit, and no determination has been made on the claims. The case is pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
