The same facility has cost Ford tens of millions in prior settlements — and the new claims echo old ones
Ford Motor Company is facing a new sexual harassment lawsuit at its Chicago Assembly Plant — and the allegations sound painfully familiar.
A production worker at the Torrence Avenue facility claims her supervisor subjected her to years of explicit, unwelcome comments starting in 2021, and that the company's response fell short at every stage. The case, Davis v. Ford Motor Company (No. 1:26-cv-02877, N.D. Ill.), was filed on March 13.
Tashona Davis, an auto assembler at the plant, alleges that her team lead, James Tolbert, made persistent sexually explicit remarks and engaged in unwelcome conduct directed at her over a period of roughly three years. She says she told him repeatedly she was not interested. He allegedly continued anyway.
In early November 2024, Davis took the next step and filed a formal complaint with Ford's Employee Relations for Manufacturing department. The company interviewed her on November 15 and told her the matter would be investigated. Then, according to the filing, silence. Davis heard nothing for four months — until an email arrived in March 2025 informing her the investigation had been closed. During that entire stretch, Tolbert allegedly remained in his role, working alongside her with no apparent consequences.
It is what happened next that HR professionals may find most instructive.
When Davis returned from an unrelated medical leave in June 2025, she alleges the retaliation escalated. A coworker reportedly told her that Tolbert had been saying she would be fired for reporting him. Another colleague, Stephanie Parker, allegedly said Tolbert asked her to lie to help get Davis terminated. Davis says she then started receiving write-ups for things she had never been required to do before, and that Tolbert's girlfriend, a coworker identified only as Laquisha, filed what Davis describes as a fabricated HR report against her. The result, according to the filing: a two-week unpaid suspension.
None of this has been proven in court, and Ford has not yet responded.
But for anyone who has followed Ford's track record at this particular facility, the pattern is hard to ignore. Public records show the EEOC investigated the Chicago Assembly Plant and the nearby Chicago Stamping Plant in the mid-1990s. In 2000, Ford paid $9 million to settle harassment claims there and agreed to spend $10 million on prevention training, independent oversight, and a reporting hotline. In 2017, the company paid up to $10.125 million to resolve another round of EEOC findings involving sexual and racial harassment — and retaliation — at the same plants.
The Davis filing raises three counts under Title VII: sexual harassment, sex-based discrimination, and retaliation. No determination has been made on the merits.
For HR leaders, this case poses an uncomfortable question that goes well beyond one company or one plant. When the same workplace keeps producing similar allegations despite years of training, policy reform, and significant settlements, at what point do you stop asking whether the policies are right and start asking whether the culture has actually changed?
