I work for a Union representing federal employees. I bring this up because your first entry on this issue really hit a nerve for me. So much so that I couldn’t let it go, and wondered how I can get involved. Last week, it finally hit me. There’s very little I can do for these women on the criminal charges directly, but I can help to make sure that employment contracts with arbitration clauses like this never happen again, at least with Government Contractors.

This is all very new to me, so I have no idea how to start it up, but my idea is to lobby for legislation that prohibits any company doing business with the Federal Government from requiring employees to submit to arbitration clauses. In other words, employees of government contractors should have the same access to courts as federal employees (seeing as many of them are performing work that used to be performed by federal employees).

The list of likely organizations to support this legislation would be pretty broad. Federal Employee unions like AFGE, AFSCME, NFFE, NAGE, NTEU, etc. will support it because these arbitration clauses are used by contractors to keep labor costs down so they can underbid federal agencies to win contracts for government work under a system called A-76. That results in fewer federal employees that are represented by Unions (and these contractors are rarely, if ever, organized).

I imagine Women’s Rights and Civil Rights Organizations would also support such legislation for the obvious reasons. Women, minorities, and other groups of protected employees should have the inalienable right to their day in court.

And good government groups should support it for the same obvious reasons. Government Contractors often operate in a shadowy world, especially overseas. Ensuring some level of accountability by preserving the right to bring actions to court is a good way to bring accountability to these contractors since the federal government has shown itself unwilling and unable to enforce accountability.

So the bottom line is, do you think this is a good idea, and if so, do you have any recommendations how to start lobbying for this kind of legislation? I’m serious about pushing this issue with my members of Congress (Barbara Lee, Boxer, and Feinstein), but it’s not something one person can do alone.

make no mistake though, the rest of the world is paying attention…….

Congress Defends Gaza Assault 404-1

Today Congress passed a resolution (HR 951) condemning Palestinian rocket attacks that include a strident defense of recent Israeli tactics in the Gaza Strip. The resolution also condemned Iran and Syria for “sponsoring terror attacks,” and demanded that Saudi Arabia publicly condemn Palestinian actions.

http://www.antiwar.com/blog/20…..ult-404-1/

(funny how congress can actually act in lockstep when it suits them, isn’t it? only Ron Paul voted no on this, btw; some others voted present or not at all)

As apparently applied here, had this employee been raped and murdered by a company vice president, her estate would have to arbitrate the claim. A perfect example of the oxymoronic “Texas justice” so admired by Mr. B.