The three women involved in a federal suit against Bloomberg LP that charges gender discrimination are now saying Mayor Bloomberg and other top managers at the company created a culture hostile to pregnant women and new mothers.
The women filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Manhattan yesterday to add to the lawsuit filed last week by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the financial news information company.
The new 66-page complaint — which seeks nearly $482 million in cumulative compensatory and punitive damages — offers more specifics than the EEOC suit, and targets the mayor and the top lieutenants who took over for him when he left to go to City Hall for creating an environment conducive to discrimination.
"Upon information and belief, Michael Bloomberg is responsible for the creation of the systemic, top-down culture of discrimination which exists within Bloomberg," the complaint says. It says the highest levels of management "fostered, condoned and perpetuated" such an atmosphere.
The new motion is not only a blow to a company that has been surging on the business side, but could also be a major political setback for the mayor if he decides to run for president as a third party candidate.
It sure could be a blow to Bloomberg's run for president as a third party candidate, assuming the political press actually follows up on the allegations, including that Bloomberg is still running the company by attending weekly meetings with and taking daily phone calls from top managers at Bloomberg LP.
Bloomberg claims he has little contact with anybody at Bloomberg LP anymore and no say in how the company is run.
Which is the way it's supposed to be, since he's the mayor of New York.
At any rate, judging by the way Bloomberg has been covered in the political press so far, I have my doubts that this gender discrimination lawsuit will have much of a negative effect on his potential '08 run.
Just last night on Hardball, NY Times political reporter Patrick Healy (the guy who has written a 2000 word front page article about how many nights Bill and Hillary sleep together and another 1000 word front page article about Hillary's laugh) was falling all over himself to say Bloomberg is going to run in 2008 and make a good showing.
Washington Post editorial writer Jonathan Capehart joined Healy in effusively praising Bloomberg and his potential '08 run for the White House.
Never once did Capehart mention last night that he used to work for Bloomberg News or as a policy adviser for the Bloomberg campaign in 2001.
I don't know if Healy has ever worked for Bloomberg, but listening to him suck up to Moneybags last night on Hardball, it seems like he's keeping his options open.
I wonder if it were Bill Clinton being personally named in a gender discrimination lawsuit by three women alleging that Clinton had "created a culture hostile to pregnant women and new mothers" if Patrick Healy would find the time to write a 1000 word front page article about the suit.
I bet he would.
But since it's Moneybags being named, Healy ignored the suit and his newspaper buried the story deep in the Metro section.
I wonder what it is Bloomberg has to do to get his boys in the press to write something negative about him?
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