EEOC AND FORD MOTOR COMPANY TO SIGN NATIONAL MEDIATION AGREEMENT ON APRIL 2

DETROIT -  The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) will enter a national mediation partnership with "Big Three" automaker the Ford Motor Company on Friday, April 2, 2004, at 11:00 a.m., at Ford World Headquarters located at One American Road (northeast corner of Michigan Ave./Southfield intersection), Dearborn, Michigan.

A National Universal Agreement to Mediate (NUAM) will be signed by EEOC Chair Cari M. Dominguez and Ford's Vice President for Corporate Human Resources, Joe Laymon.  The NUAM will be the 29th between EEOC and a major employer (mainly Fortune 500 companies), bolstering a multi-year trend of Corporate America signing on to the agency's widely acclaimed Alternative Dispute Resolution program  one of the largest employment-related mediation programs of its kind nationwide, with over 11,500 mediations conducted annually.  The agreement will also mark the first time the EEOC has signed an NUAM with a leading U.S. automaker.  In addition to the nearly 30 national mediation agreements signed between the EEOC and large employers, agency district offices have entered into approximately 500 local mediation agreements with employers at the state or regional levels within their respective jurisdictions.  Further information about the EEOC and its mediation program is available on the agency's web site at www.eeoc.gov.

The EEOC enforces Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion or national origin; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which protects workers age 40 and older from discrimination based on age; the Equal Pay Act of 1963; the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits employment discrimination against people with disabilities in the federal sector; Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits employment discrimination against people with disabilities in the private sector and in state and local governments; and sections of the Civil Rights Act of 1991.