Lawyers Paint Different Pictures of Former Ford Employee

A Ford Aerospace and Communications Corp. employee concerned about problems with the Sgt. York tank gun was harassed by fellow workers and fired unfairly, her lawyer said Friday.

“She was a loyal, hard-working, dedicated, enthusiastic employee who was just getting the stuffing knocked out of her every day she tried to do her job,” attorney Richard M. Grey told jurors on the first day of trial in Jeanette Shurtleff’s lawsuit against Ford.

Shurtleff, who drove the experimental tank on which the Sgt. York gun was mounted during tests, has said she was subjected to sexual discrimination on the job at Ford’s test facility in San Juan Capistrano.

Her trial is being held before Judge Donald E. Smallwood in Orange County Superior Court.

Shurtleff worked on the Army’s Sgt. York Air Defense Gun for more than a year. The 1985 cancellation of the weapon by Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger led to layoffs of 1,900 Ford employees.

Sgt. York Gun

The Army had hoped that the weapon would provide defense against an increasingly sophisticated threat from helicopters and fighter jets.

Each weapon consists of two Swedish-made 40-millimeter cannons mounted on the chassis of an M-48 tank and uses the same radar system as the F-16 fighter plane. With laser range finders and computer-controlled guidance, it was supposed to quickly bring high-performance targets under lethal attack.

Announcing that the gun was critically flawed, Weinberger canceled the project about two months after Shurtleff was fired.

Ford attorney Cynthia Garrett’s portrait of Shurtleff differed widely from Grey’s.

Shurtleff was unreliable, a troublemaker who was given constant job counseling but did not straighten out and ultimately refused a work assignment, Garrett said.

“Her problems were not with her supervisors but with her co-workers,” Garrett told jurors. “Hers was not a sexual problem--it was not a safety problem. It was not a whistle-blower problem.”

The trial, expected to last 10 days, will center on treatment Shurtleff received while working for Ford in 1983-85.

Shurtleff, now 35, of Lake Elsinore was hired as a laboratory technician for the defense contractor in Newport Beach. She transferred in 1984 to the south county test facility, where she became one of the first women to test-drive tanks for the firm.

Shurtleff complained to Ford superiors that co-workers had falsified test data on the Sgt. York or had given misleading interpretations of data, Grey said.

Shurtleff was then subjected to “a terrible series of indignities and harassments,” Grey said.

Inequities Charged

Other co-workers of equal ability and performance received raises while she did not, according to the lawsuit. Her locker was vandalized and her personal belongings destroyed, Grey said.

A succession of poor assignments and verbal harassment allegedly followed. Shurtleff said her supervisor made fun of the way she walked and talked. Personnel officials “pressured” her to accept a demotion and transfer, according to the lawsuit.

In July, 1985, Shurtleff refused an assignment that required her to work with an employee whom she alleged had falsified gun-test results. She was suspended and then fired for what Ford termed “the good of the company.”

Shurtleff has collected $15,000 in worker’s compensation for the stress she suffered in the workplace while testing the Sgt. York. She has asked for more than $1 million in damages.

Ford gave Shurtleff extensive counseling to try to iron out her difficulties with co-workers, the firm said.

Investigations Ensued

All her complaints were investigated thoroughly, sometimes by Shurtleff’s “supervisor’s supervisor’s supervisor,” Garrett said.

Shurtleff deceived herself into believing she uncovered gun design problems of which management was unaware, Garrett told jurors.

“She was in a rough test facility where they worked long hours under tough conditions,” said Garrett, describing a frenzied atmosphere shortly before the $1.8-billion gun program was canceled.

“There were other women working out there, beside the men,” Garrett said. “Mrs. Shurtleff was the only one to complain about any kind of harassment.”