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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA court just gutted your right to sue your boss
The case involved D.R. Horton, a home-builder operating in 27 states with annual revenue over $6 billion. The company required all employees to sign an agreement providing that employment disputes would be resolved by binding arbitration and that the arbitrator may hear only Employees individual claims. When one employee tried to pursue a claim that D.R. Horton had misclassified an entire category of workers as exempt from the protection of federal overtime law, the company insisted that each worker had to file his or her own claim.
The employee sought relief from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which held that the agreement to waive the right to join with co-workers in pursuing workplace claims violated federal labor law, which not only gives employees a right to form unions and engage in collective bargaining, but also to engage in concerted activities for the purpose of other mutual aid or protection. More than 30 years ago, the Supreme Court recognized that labor law protects employees when they seek to improve their working conditions through resort to administrative and judicial forums. After all, if employees have a right to strike together for higher wages, surely they can sue together to obtain the same result. And that is what the board held: Just as employers cannot require employees to agree not to join a union by signing whats known as a yellow dog contract, neither can they require employees to agree not to file a class action.
The New Orleans Court of Appeals, by a 2-1 vote, reversed the boards decision, concluding that employees longstanding labor-law right to act collectively was trumped by the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), which was enacted in 1925 to require courts to enforce private parties lawful agreements to resolve disputes out of court. But the FAA does not say anything about class actions and does not require enforcement of arbitration agreements that violate another law, such as the National Labor Relations Act. The courts holding was guided instead by recent Supreme Court decisions giving the FAA an expansive readingfor example, permitting AT&T Mobility to enforce an arbitration clause appearing in the fine print in its form contract with cell-phone users, precluding consumers from bringing a class action.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/a-court-just-gutted-your-right-to-sue-your-boss-101756.html
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
ChisolmTrailDem
(9,463 posts)Ed Suspicious
(8,879 posts)bandying about the new word of the day is tiresome.
LeftofObama
(4,243 posts)My sentiments exactly!
Logical
(22,457 posts)mikeysnot
(4,756 posts)I was gone for a while over the holidays and it is all over here now.
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)mikeysnot
(4,756 posts)Is it John Woo? Or just like writing MEH all over the place?
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)But someone would claim it is woo.
JackInGreen
(2,975 posts)I think is folk or alternative medicine or cures.
Bradical79
(4,490 posts)I missed the start, but as far as I can tell, someone attacked some alternative medicine claim or religious claim as "woo" which started a number of believers on a crusade of attacking the scientific method and an overabundance of sarcastic "woo" threads and posts. Woo is a popular term some skeptics use to describe unscientific magical/supernatural beliefs like ESP, faith healing, speaking in tongues, etc. or something like an "alternative" medicine that has been tested and found wanting, or vaccine paranoia.
Bradical79
(4,490 posts)People saying "woo" all the time just makes me think of Rick Flair lol.
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mikeysnot
(4,756 posts)Is Rick Flair, Liberace's lover?
George II
(67,782 posts)...where else does one ever see the word "meme" but around here?
Neoma
(10,039 posts)It's in a lot of different places.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(49,000 posts)Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)Whatever is resisted, persists.
As for me, I have some ideas about the nature of reality that are not exactly materialistic, but I see no point in arguing that stuff on DU, so I pretty much stay out of those threads.
EC
(12,287 posts)bit in it's place...as silly. Anyway it's passé so whoever on here thinks it's something new, is way behind the times.
Ed Suspicious
(8,879 posts)ChisolmTrailDem
(9,463 posts)Ed Suspicious
(8,879 posts)PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)Kind of seems pointless to me.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)when they know they have to go it alone?
LisaLynne
(14,554 posts)we have no rights left at all.
lastlib
(23,222 posts)Gut every protection every human being has, then it's every man for himself. Who ever has the biggest gun wins.
Baitball Blogger
(46,702 posts)I don't think state law has the right to trump Federal law on a race issue.
loudsue
(14,087 posts)Only thing that can overturn this is the supreme court of the USA. Guess which way they are going to rule? We are fucked yet again.
mountain grammy
(26,619 posts)The article says:
Do federal judges think that a fast-food worker denied wages owed him will dare to pursue arbitration alone against his employer? A female cashier denied promotion based on her sex? Perhaps Congress will ensure that the laws of our land have continued vitality inside the workplace when it takes up the Arbitration Fairness Act this year.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/a-court-just-gutted-your-right-to-sue-your-boss-101756_Page2.html#ixzz2peLg8Gs5
Call Congress and rattle their cages!
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)but their track record says they won't.
mountain grammy
(26,619 posts)TexasTowelie
(112,142 posts)Bought and paid for by Bush and other corporate interests. I don't have a lot of faith in the SCOTUS, but Roberts or Kennedy might still surprise us if the case is heard.
loudsue
(14,087 posts)But Roberts is bush's guy til the end, and Kennedy...well, Kennedy is weird to the max. You never know what he might do.
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)This decision was by a panel (three judges) of the Fifth Circuit. On rare occasions, a decision is reheard en banc, meaning that all the judges on the court, in this case ten or so, take up the matter. The full Fifth Circuit might side with the dissenting judge.
Failing that, this is still binding only in the Fifth Circuit, covering several Southern states. Federal courts elsewhere in the country would certainly take account of this decision but are free to decide that the dissent had the better arguments. In that event, workers outside the Fifth Circuit would still have the right to bring class actions.
If such a conflict in the circuits does arise, of course, that makes it very likely that the issue would indeed go before SCOTUS, the only court that can resolve such conflicts.
It would be good for Congress to amend the Federal Arbitration Act to make clear that it doesn't abridge workers' statutory right to concerted action. In the current Congress, however, the best we could realistically hope for would be that the Senate passes such a bill, Boehner refuses to bring it to the floor of the House for a vote, and it just becomes one more issue for bashing Republicans in this year's campaigns.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)William769
(55,145 posts)2014 is not starting out to be a good year.
rurallib
(62,410 posts)which shows why the right has been working(?) so hard to stop Obama court nominees. If they own the courts who cares what the other branches do? (I am over playing this, but maybe not by much)
OnyxCollie
(9,958 posts)George II
(67,782 posts).....overly broad and false.
The decision (by the way, it was last month, not "just"!) applied to one aspect of the law.
The decision also leaves intact the right and ability of employees to sue their employer, even over the issue in this case.
daleanime
(17,796 posts)against the entire corporation. A very fair fight.
George II
(67,782 posts)....a fair fight.
After being laid off, I took on two of the top 100 corporations in the country and won both times. The first time I didn't even have an attorney, I just worked with the state EEOC. After I won 18 months later, I returned to my original position (with seniority and back pay) the division I worked for was sold to a second corporation (thus the two top 100s) and shortly afterward was laid off a second time, and again prevailed, except the second time I did have an attorney.
Orsino
(37,428 posts)blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)U$A!
U$A!
arcane1
(38,613 posts)Check out the excellent documentary "Hot Coffee".
abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)when our former work laid off 70% of the workers and went bankrupt last year. No one would have had a chance in hell to see any money if we all had to sue independently. One more big win for business, and a huge loss for workers.
George II
(67,782 posts)....that no one lost their job. It was a case that involved a reclassification of a group of employees (not that this is necessarily good, but....)
Unfortunately people (not you in particular) don't read past the headlines which, in many cases are inaccurate.
INdemo
(6,994 posts)bash "liberals" and how they are taking our rights away and how "I'll be damned if I pay a penalty for failing to file for Obama care etc.. All this bullshit and more. Several times in the last few months I have argued that if they think liberals are that bad then move on to some trade that is non union or something else.
This article above should be posted in every damn unionized break room in America because folks its coming and ...the big push started with that idiot GW and I must say that President Obama fell back on his word when he vowed to walk the picket line with workers demanding fair treatment when Wisconsin was about to take away their bargaining rights...
So what does this reply have to do with this post. Well it shows that we have one hell of a battle ahead of us for maintaining our union bargaining rights...In my argument I have noted that anyone. Anyone that is a union member, a dues paying card member that will walk into a voting booth and vote those rights away does not deserve the privilege of carrying that union card and being a member of a bargaining unit that works to get them that livable wage they are earning. If they are willing to vote away what their Fathers and Grandfathers (and many cases Great Grandfathers ) fought for and laid their lives on the line so that us Union members of today still have those bargaining rights to earn, that livable wage.then no they should not belong to our union. A well built house has to be maintained. If termites attack that house they have to be dealt with or that house will crumble. So we have to stand up to issues such as this when a group conservative Judges(in ths case a small majority (2) take one more step forward in trying to destroy us as a bargaining unit...We have the right to work in Wisc,IN,and Ohio..So what would you expect if we should have a Republican President and Republican Majority in both Houses?..Could it be the end of unions with a national right to work law? So if you work with or know that young guy that insists that "liberals" are the bad guys remind them voting for the other guy is voting those livable wages away.
Excuse me that was 2 Judges giving way to the rights of workers being jepodized.
mdbl
(4,973 posts)Arbitration has become a joke. The arbitrator is usually a corporate stooge and they charge a lot of money for ruling in favor of the fascists. I never thought I would see a time where people were so brainwashed that they would allow what exists today. Again, I can only say it's very sad.
lunasun
(21,646 posts)Bradical79
(4,490 posts)I just don't know how to deal with it.
When I was still an active Union carpenter, I used to have to listen to (and argue with) idiots like this too.
I noticed that the majority of these dumb asses did not last long, usually because of their lack of work ethic.
I knew one idiot who actually carried a picture of GWB in his wallet. I brought this up at a Union meeting that he actually showed up to (looking for work). He didn't get a lot of work after that meeting...... our ancestors fought and died for these rights because they discovered it was their only real protection.
INdemo
(6,994 posts)they somehow get buy with it. It is mostly the young apprentices or someone that was raised in a right wing environment. There was this one guy that thought Rand Paul was the answer to all our problems and he was be-damned if he was going to pay any penalty for failure to sign up for Obama care..until I informed him he was ineligible because he was offered health insurance through his employer. He shut up
But never the less I am worried because when/if we have a Republican in the White House and a Republican Majority in both Houses that could pretty much be the end of our Democracy and certainly the middle class, then all these whiners will really have something to whine about.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)oldhippie
(3,249 posts).... the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals? I've never heard it referred to as the New Orleans Court of Appeals
George II
(67,782 posts)El_Johns
(1,805 posts)Dustlawyer
(10,495 posts)force arbitration as this article refers to, and limits access to a jury of your peers. By the way, they have brainwashed many of your peers now to the point where they would never award anyone any money and know enough not to admit that in Court!
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Very disturbing. This is truly a loss of freedom. No problem, it is being replaced by freedumb.
lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)dotymed
(5,610 posts)even on DU, do not understand the far reaching consequences of this "decision" by our owners.
Past workers fought and died to get the ability to Unite (and Unionize) because they were aware that United we stand, Divided we fall.
This is true now more than ever, with the concentration of wealth in such few pockets.
If this ruling is allowed to stand, we will be extremely impoverished between this and "Citizens United."
I guess the corporations are entitled to be united, as persons, in our brave new war on the workers world.
America needs Bernie Sanders as POTUS...