(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Four years after winning a momentous pregnancy discrimination lawsuit against her former employer, a truck driver from Fountain finds herself embroiled in a strikingly similar battle with a different company.
Mignon Herzlevesque, who successfully fought her previous employer, The United States Truck Driver School, is now taking on Arctic Glacier, a national premium ice company.
Herzlevesque worked as the only female truck driver at Arctic Glacier for two years. Throughout her time, she said she was a diligent worker, at times working 90-hour shifts, never facing disciplinary action.
According to her former colleagues, she excelled at her job, even outperforming some of her male counterparts. However, they also said that throughout her time at the company, her work environment was rife with gender bias and the pervasive “old boy network” mentality.
“She wasn’t treated the same as the men were… The boss, he kind of didn’t want women working there,” said an Arctic Glacier employee who worked there for over three years. Due to concerns over employment, they requested to remain anonymous.
After the birth of her daughter in June 2022, Herzlevesque was eager to return to her job. However, she alleges that her employers refused to put her back on the schedule, claiming a lack of available hours. But fellow truck drivers who worked at the company at the time contend that there was, in fact, ample room for her to be accommodated.
“We were very understaffed… We could’ve really used her help. But for whatever reason, he [the boss] never put her on the schedule,” the anonymous Arctic Glacier truck driver revealed. “Boss said it was a voluntary termination.”
Herzlevesque maintains that her leave was far from voluntary, and she passionately asserts her dedication to her work.
“I love what I do, I love driving, and I’m really good at it,” she expressed, saying that she has called as frequently as a few times a week per month, for the past year, to get her job back.
This isn’t the first time Herzlevesque has confronted pregnancy discrimination in her career. In 2019, she was one of the first individuals in the state to win a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit under the Pregnancy Workers Fairness Act when she triumphed over the United States Truck Driver School, according to her attorney.
Expressing her frustration, Herzlevesque believes that this issue is pervasive in the trucking industry. “I feel like it’s everywhere. Like trucking companies don’t want women there. They don’t recognize us as mothers and workers. And yeah, this has happened two times now.”
FOX21 reached out to Arctic Glacier for a comment on the matter but has not received a response yet.
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