Jesse Jackson Calls Off Boycott Of Mitsubishi Dealers

NEW YORK - The Rev. Jesse Jackson today called off his boycott of Mitsubishi dealers because of the company's agreement to improve working conditions for minority and female workers at its assembly plant in Illinois.

Mitsubishi has made "a commitment worth well over $200 million that will set new standards and challenges for foreign imports," he said in a statement earlier today.

Mitsubishi has made a commitment "to end the hostile workplace environment for women and people of color, to pursue vigorously the resolution of this sex and race harassment crisis in Normal, Ill.," he said.

Yesterday, the civil-rights leader told a conference of auto-industry executives in Detroit he believed the agreement "will be a breakthrough and could set the pace for the rest of the market."

Mitsubishi spokeswoman Noreen Stolte declined to discuss the agreement.

Jackson organized a boycott of Mitsubishi dealers in the U.S. last May after lawsuits were filed against the company's U.S. manufacturing subsidiary alleging sexual harassment of female

workers.