Organize the South

On Tuesday, October 27 I received a response from Sen. Saxby Chambliss. I had sent both of the Georgia Senators a letter asking why they opposed Sen. Al Franken's amendment to the Defense Authorization bill. Franken's amendment would have (will, actually, since it passed) banned the federal government from giving contracts to companies that do not allow their employees to sue in court for sexual harrasment or assault. Those opposed to the amendment have been accused of supporting rape. In my letter I ask why the Senators would support such an amendment, if they really meant to vote for gang rape. Sen. Chambliss initially responded with something about Kevin Jennings. He now is answering the question.

Dear Daniel:

Thank you for contacting me regarding Senate Amendment 2588 (S. Amdt. 2588) as it pertains the National Defense Authorization Act for the 2010 fiscal year (NDAA). It is good to hear from you.

During the recent debate on the NDAA, Senator Franken introduced S. Amdt. 2588 which would drastically change the way the Department of Defense (DoD) interacts with defense contractors. Specifically, this amendment bans the DoD from doing business with any contractor that has a mandatory arbitration clause with its employees. Therefore, all defense contractors that want to continue to receive federal funding will be forced to eliminate mandatory arbitration as an option for resolving employment disputes.

I strongly believe rape is a terrible crime and that those who commit sexual assault should be punished. However, the Franken amendment was not the proper way to address this issue. This amendment creates a major, fundamental change in U.S. labor law that goes far beyond Ms. Jones' claim against Halliburton. Instead, I strongly support the U.S. Justice Department being more aggressive in prosecuting cases of rape and violent crime in all situations where they have jurisdiction.

From a legal standpoint, the elimination of arbitration as an option leaves employees with only the option of going to court, which often to the determent of the employee is a very expensive and lengthy process. Arbitration allows employees to still make their claim and pay nothing or nearly nothing to do so because an employee does not have to hire an attorney for arbitration. As such, I voted against the inclusion of the Franken Amendment to the NDAA.

On Wednesday, October 21 I received this thoughtful reply from Sen. Johnny Isakson concerning his no vote on S. Amendment 2588. That amendment, introduced by Sen. Al Franken, would deny federal contracts to employers who deny their employee's right to go to court regarding sexual assault and sexual discrimination. I am reprinting the letter verbatim. I will have a response to this letter since the Senator has mistaken intent with impact. For example, one can intend to protect people from sexual assault yet vote for something that has the impact of making it easier to cover up sexual assault.

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Thank you for contacting me regarding an amendment included in the Senate-passed Department of Defense Appropriations Act for 2010, that prohibits funding for federal contractors who require the use of arbitration to settle employment disputes. I appreciate hearing from you and the opportunity to respond.

Senate amendment 2588 to H.R.3326, Department of Defense Appropriations Act for 2010, was introduced by Senator Al Franken in response to the case of Jamie Leigh Jones, a 22-year-old Texan who alleges that in 2005 she was drugged and gang raped by fellow contract workers while working for defense contractor Halliburton/KBR at Camp Hope in Baghdad. Ms. Jones sued Halliburton/KBR and a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in September 2009 that Jones' employment contract with Halliburton/KBR does not prohibit her from suing over the claims she has made and that her lawsuit against Halliburton/KBR can go to trial. I am glad Ms. Jones is getting her day in court for these civil claims against the company, and I believe that if the charges bear out, those responsible for this horrific crime should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

I voted against this amendment in accordance with the recommendation of the President and his Department of Defense, which opposed this amendment. Under the Franken amendment, defense contractors who receive federal funding could no longer require that employees sign contracts mandating that they settle employment disputes through arbitration. The amendment applies to current defense contracts and thus contractors who have employment arbitration agreements with their employees and who have already completed work for the military would not be able to paid for that work, under the Franken amendment.

In addition, I believe that this amendment would reverberate far beyond Ms. Jones' claim against Halliburton because it would lead to defense contractors eliminating arbitration altogether as an option for employees. Arbitration is a proven process that offers fast and fair resolutions of employment disputes, and its must be preserved as an option.

Without arbitration, employees are left with only the option of going to court, which is a very expensive and lengthy process. Arbitration allows employees to still make their claim and pay nothing or nearly nothing to do so because an employee does not have to hire an attorney for arbitration. Additionally, statistics show that employees actually fair better in the arbitration process than they do in court. According to a survey, employees have a 63 percent chance of prevailing in arbitration versus a 43 percent chance of prevailing in court.

The Franken amendment ultimately passed by a vote of 68 to 30, and some are characterizing the 30 senators who voted against the Franken amendment as "Pro-Rape" or "Pro-Gang Rape." This is politics at its worst. I am a husband, a father of a daughter, and a grandfather to three granddaughters, and it is absolutely ludicrous to characterize me or my colleagues as "pro-rape." Rape is a heinous crime and those who commit sexual assault should be punished, and I believe that the U.S. Justice Department should become more aggressive in prosecuting cases of rape and violent crime in combat zones such as Iraq. Unfortunately, the Franken amendment would not do anything to protect women from violence or to punish criminals. If it had, I would certainly have voted for the amendment.

Thank you again for contacting me. Please visit my webpage at http://isakson.senate.gov/ for more information on the issues important to you and to sign up for my e-newsletter.

Sincerely,

Johnny Isakson

United States Senator

For future correspondence with my office, please visit my web site at http://isakson.senate.gov/contact.cfm.

I just got an email from Sen. Chambliss. I have no idea why. I sent him an email about supporting gang rape, and he sent me an email about Kevin Jennings. Way to deal with things head on! My response is below and the Senator's email is at the bottom.


Dear Senator Chambliss:

On October 13 I sent you a letter and Sen. Johnny Isakson asking you to explain why you voted against S. 2588. This amendment would deny federal contracts to employers that deny employees the right to sue against sexual harassment, assault, and discrimination. This amendment would allow a young woman, gang raped in Iraq by her coworkers, to have her day in court. You apparently voted in favor of gang rape.

Today, October 19, you sent me an email about my concern about Kevin Jennings. In the email you mentioned I had contacted you about my concern about Kevin Jennings. Senator, I have never emailed you, or anyone else, about Kevin Jennings. I don't care about Kevin Jennings and find any reference to him to be a distraction. Let the man do his job and concetrate on real issues. An example of a real issue would be shielding war privateering corporations like Haliburton from charges of covering up gang rape.

I would like you to please explain why you would oppose S. 2588. Thank you.

Dan

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Dear Daniel:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the appointment of Kevin Jennings to the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. It is good to hear from you.

Kevin Jennings was recently appointed as Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools under the Department of Education on May 19, 2009. The Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools is charged with assisting in drug and violence prevention activities for students at all grade levels. I understand your concerns regarding this appointment and will keep your thoughts in mind.

If you would like to receive timely email alerts regarding the latest congressional actions and my weekly e-newsletter, please sign up via my web site at: www.chambliss.senate.gov. Please let me know whenever I may be of assistance.

Very truly yours,

SC:md

In an earlier post I wrote a letter to Sen. Johnny Isakson and Sen. Saxby Chambliss about their inexplicable support of Haliburton's efforts to cover up gang rape committed by their employees in Iraq. To date, I haven't heard a reply from the senators. Jon Stewart has a great 4 minute clip on this amendment. Although he doesn't mention the good senators from Georgia, he hits all of the arguments.

If you would like, you contact the Senators yourself:

Sen. Johnny Isakson
One Overton Park, Suite 970
3625 Cumberland Blvd
Atlanta, GA 30339
Tel: (770) 661-0999
Fax: (770) 661-0768
Email Contact


Sen. Saxby Chambliss
100 Galleria Parkway
Suite 1340
Atlanta, GA 30339
Main: 770-763-9090
Fax: 770-226-8633
Email Contact

Dear Senator Johnny Isakson & Senator Saxby Chambliss:

The 2010 Defense Appropriations bill had an amendment introduced by Sen. Al Franken. The amendment was S. Amdt. 2588. Sen. Franken's amendment would ban companies that restrict their employees' ability to take sexual assault cases to court. According to an article on Alternet, Sen. Franken specifically offered this amendment to provide relief for Jamie Leigh Jones. Jones was gang raped by her co-workers at Haliburton while she was in Iraq. She was then threatened if she left Iraq for medical treatment. This is according to ABC News.

Apparently, both Sen. Isakson and Sen. Chambliss voted against this amendment. I'd like to know why. You must have a good reason. Sen. Sessions from Alabama suggested that the amendment would violate the due process clause of the Constitution. Was that your reason? Sen. Franken did a good job of explaining how an amendment, one that does target a specific company but does specify how federal funds are to be spent, is quite constitution. But if that was your reason, why do both you Sen. Isakson and Sen. Chambliss support, nay co-sponsor, an amendment to insure ACORN no longer receives federal money. If a bill that would target a specific organization is not un-Constitutional in your mind, how would a bill that doesn't target a specific company be unconstitutional?

Sen. Chambliss, you said that organizations that "undermine our democratic process should not be eligible for taxpayer dollars." Doesn't raping a woman, covering up the crime, and not allowing her access to the courts count as undermining democracy? Sen. Isakson you signed on to a letter that said, in part, "American taxpayers must be able to trust that their money is being spent responsibly and is not being used to fund criminal enterprises." Why is it that when it comes to ACORN both of you are able to feel such outrage, yet an effort to make sure women have a chance to hold rapists receiving federal funds accountable gets a no vote? Can you explain this to me?

Thanks,

Dan

Labor Notes is reporting that the Coalition of Immokalee Workers have scored a great win. They've been running campaigns against restaurants for a penny raise for tomatoes and have won. Now they are breaking the back of the growers. In the middle of a recession farmworkers, those workers with the least amount legal protections, have scored a great victory. Yeah, sometimes we win.

Florida Tomato Pickers Score ‘Greatest Victory’ in Decades
http://labornotes.org/node/2488

After two years of delay, farmworkers in Florida will finally start getting a penny more per pound for tomatoes they pick. A powerful lobby group had blocked efforts to pass on the raise to workers, but employers’ unity is cracking. A deluge of worker and consumer pressure may be finally convincing industry leaders to address unconscionable labor abuse in the tomato fields. Photo: CIW.

After two years of delay, farmworkers in Florida will finally start getting a penny more per pound for tomatoes they pick.

Organizing with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), farmworkers had reached agreements over the last five years with Yum Brands, McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, and Whole Foods to improve harvesters' wages and working conditions, but the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE), a powerful industry lobby group, had blocked efforts to pass on the raise to workers, leaving the money in escrow. Now one of the largest growers has broken ranks and agreed to pass on the extra penny, which gives that grower an edge in selling to the chains.

CIW members were joined September 25 by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and representatives of the food service company Compass and the tomato producer East Coast Growers and Packers to announce the accord.

With the support of Compass, which had $9 billion in revenues last year, the CIW has effectively broken the logjam of resistance created two years ago by the FTGE.

And with employers’ unity cracking, farmworkers expect that other growers may jump, too—and that the deluge of worker and consumer pressure will convince industry leaders to finally address unconscionable labor abuse in the Florida tomato fields.

Since 2007, the CIW had been unable to secure a large Florida grower willing to meet the higher standards set and funded by the agreements between CIW and the food retailers. East Coast Growers and Packers is the third-largest producer of Florida tomatoes, and Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation author and longtime observer of the CIW campaign, described its announcement to implement the CIW program as “the greatest victory for farmworkers since Cesar Chavez in the 1970s.”

CIW members were joined September 25 by Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis to announce the accord. Photo: Alan Pogue.

The agreement between the CIW and Compass outlines two key areas of reform to be put in place within the retailer’s tomato supply chain.

First, workers harvesting tomatoes for Compass will receive an immediate raise. The accord requires Compass to pay an additional penny per pound for the tomatoes it purchases, as a supplement to the picking piece rate, with the ultimate goal of a guaranteed minimum fair wage for harvesters. This means an extra 32 cents per bucket for tomatoes harvested under the Fair Food agreements, a raise that ranges from 60 to 80 percent depending on where a worker is employed.

Average wages for a Florida farmworker are about $10,000 a year currently.

Second, the agreement provides a framework to improve working conditions at the farm level. Suppliers are now required to cooperate with the CIW to improve wage and hour record-keeping, to establish employee-controlled health and safety committees, to create a worker grievance system, and to permit third-party auditing for full transparency. Significantly, the CIW is allowed to conduct worker education on company time and property.

The CIW contends worker education and participation are essential to the supplier standards’ having a real impact on the agricultural industry. Towards that end, staff and members are creating educational materials that explain the new rights established under the code of conduct, which all workers at the farms where the agreements are in place will receive. Meanwhile, the CIW plans to use an already existing third-party monitor, with the goal of creating an outside monitor to watch over the entire industry.

The industry obviously needs a watchdog.

Exempt from federal protections for overtime pay and collective bargaining, farm workers are among the poorest and least protected in the U.S.

In the extreme, these workers face situations of forced labor. In the past decade alone the CIW has aided the Department of Justice in the successful prosecution of six modern-day slavery cases involving more than 1,000 farmworkers. Twelve farm labor supervisors are currently serving sentences in federal prison as a result of these cases.

The picking piece rate for Florida tomatoes has remained stagnant since 1980. A worker today must pick and haul roughly two and a half tons of tomatoes to earn minimum wage for a typical 10-hour day. Given the seasonal and precarious nature of farm labor, workers experience significant periods of unemployment and underemployment, all of which contributes to sub-poverty annual earnings.

Immokalee, an unincorporated community on the edge of the Everglades, is at the heart of this grueling work regimen. As the central production and distribution hub of Florida's massive tomato industry, the region is responsible for nearly 90 percent of the fresh tomatoes grown in the U.S. between October and June. Tomatoes are one harvest among many, however: Each year, Florida-based growers employ tens of thousands of primarily Mexican, Guatemalan, and Haitian workers to plant and pick crops ranging from tomatoes and citrus to cucumbers and watermelons.

In the months ahead, as the CIW undertakes the intricate task of implementing the agreement, workers in Immokalee and their allies will press ahead in their campaign by targeting supermarkets such as Publix and Kroger and food service providers Sodexo and Aramark, using many of the same tactics—including educational tours and protest actions—honed during its earlier battles with the fast-food industry.

“Much work remains to be done before the harvesting season begins in a few weeks, but we're really excited about the challenge,” says CIW staff member Gerardo Reyes. “We’re finally starting to see the changes that we've been fighting for for so many years.”

I don't know if I agree with some particulars of how Jensen sees white supremacy as functioning, but the talk is a big-picture lecture. All in all, this is an interesting video. Below is the introduction taken from Zmag, you can access a lot more articles from Jensen at that site as well.