Jenson V. Eveleth Taconite Co. Case

Louis Jenson a single mother of two, began working in the mines when she moved back to her hometown of Eleveth, Minnesota. Unable to support her family doing “women’s work”, she reluctantly took a job at the town’s largest employer, Eleveth Taconite. A year later in 1976, Patricia Kosman was also hired in the mines. At the time Patricia was working two jobs to support her five children and unemployed husband. In the late 1980’s Lois Jenson, Patricia Kosmach and nineteen other women pioneered into unknown territory when they filed a class action sexual harassment lawsuit against Eveleth Taconite Co.

Jenson and Kosman were one of the first women hired in the mines. Their arrival was clearly unwanted amongst the other male employees. For several years the women suffered unwanted advancements, insults and inappropriate behavior. Patricia Kosman who had become a volunteer union official brought up the women’s concerns and complaints to union leaders and mine managers but the cries fell on deaf ears. Jenson also voiced her concerns directly to management. She detailing the disturbing events and attitudes within the company’s culture but Eveleth officials dismissed her complaints. After several ignored attempts, she decided to seek help at the state legislation level. In 1984 she reached out to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, filing a complaint outlining several problems within the company. Jenson wrote a letter describing the abusive language, threats and intimidation she and many other female employees had to endure daily. The women wanted the mine to establish a policy prohibiting the men’s bad behavior. However several years passed and the behavior continued, The women felt no relief and their desperation continued to grow.

After four years of being ignored, the women banned together and took their grievances to a United States court of law. On August 15, 1988, Paul Sprenger filed the Lois E. Jenson and Patricia S. Kosmach v. Eveleth Taconite Co. in the U.S. District Court of Minneapolis.

For the next eight years, as the women miners traveled back and forth to Minneapolis to testify in dispositions and at trial. Their participation in this lawsuit came at a great cost. The women were chastised, they encountered countless acts of retaliation and sabotage from thee men in the community. In court the women testified to their personal experiences, detailing incidents of groping, sexual advances and even threats of rape. The women testified to multiple attempted meetings with management, where they tried to voice their fears. Again and again all the women testified that management blatantly ignored their complaints and did nothing to intervene with the harassment.

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