Obama Taps David Lopez to Serve as EEOC General Counsel

The White House issued a press release last Thursday announcing President Obama’s intention to appoint David Lopez to serve as General Counsel to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  Lopez has 13 years of experience at the EEOC and, prior to his entry into government work, he worked as an associate at Spiegel & McDiarmid LLP.  He currently serves as a supervisory trial attorney in the EEOC’s Phoenix District Office.  Lopez also has experience working at the Employment Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.  If he accepts the nomination, Lopez will inherit the position from Deputy General Counsel James Lee, who took over the operations of the Office of General Counsel after former EEOC General Counsel Ronald Cooper stepped down in early February.

The EEOC is charged with enforcing federal antidiscrimination law around the country, and the position of General Counsel will entrust Mr. Lopez with the responsibility of representing employees around the country in potentially groundbreaking litigation.  One notable case in recent memory is EEOC v. Walgreen Co., a nationwide antidiscrimination class action suit that ended in March of 2008 with a payment of over $24 million to thousands of African American workers.  While working in Phoenix, Mr. Lopez tried a case against GoDaddy.com that lead to a verdict of $242,000 for discrimination on the basis of religion against a Muslim employee.

We applaud and endorse Mr. Lopez’s appointment and encourage him to continue the fight for employees who are the victims of discrimination in the workplace.  This appointment is clearly important to the work force in Connecticut, as well as throughout the entire country.  We wish Mr. Lopez luck in his endeavors on behalf of workers everywhere, and hope that he always remembers just how important his position can be to victims of workplace discrimination throughout the United States.

Rising Unemployment Trend Continues in Connecticut

The Hartford Courant has a story on the rising unemployment in Connecticut.  The news isn’t particularly good, as the unemployment rate rose from 8.1% to 8.4% in September.  In total, Connecticut lost 6,600 jobs over the course of the month.  While Connecticut is still well below the national unemployment average of 9.8%, the increase in unemployment in September is still considered a significant jump.

While many economists have indicated that the recession has hit bottom, it is clear from this story that we still have a way to go before we’ve dug ourselves out of this hole.  The rise in unemployment marks an increase in job losses compared to August.  Initially, Connecticut job losses in August were reported at 3,700 jobs; a figure that ended up being revised to 4,800.

While it is difficult to gather too much information about the future from a single month’s unemployment numbers, the overall trend has been clearly negative.   The bright spot for Connecticut’s unemployed workforce is that, since Connecticut’s three month average unemployment has risen above 8%, the state is expected to qualify for seven additional weeks of unemployment benefits for workers who are unemployed.  According to the Connecticut Department of Labor, 16,000 unemployed workers would be eligible for those additional benefits.

Franken anti-arbitration amendment passes Senate

On October 6, 2009, in a 68-30 vote, the Senate passed an amendment proposed by Senator Al Franken (D-MN) which would alter the Senate Defense Appropriations bill to prevent defense contractors who imposed mandatory arbitration clauses on employees for employment disputes from receiving federal government contracts.  This was an important step in the right direction for employees everywhere, and we applaud the success of Senator Franken’s amendment.

The fight is not over though.  The bill is now moving to the joint Senate-House Conference Committee.  The list of likely conferees is provided below, and while no Senators or Representatives from Connecticut are on this list, we urge you to contact Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) or Representative Norman Dicks (D-WA), and make clear that the Franken Amendment must survive the committee.  Both Congressmen have voiced strong support for fair practices in arbitration when employees are involved.

One story has raised the profile of this very important issue.  In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was working in Iraq as an administrative assistant for KBR, an engineering and construction company.  Ms. Jones was drugged and gang-raped on July 28, 2005 by several fellow KBR employees.  On May 16, 2007, Jones filed a civil law suit against KBR in federal court.  KBR argued that Jones had agreed in her employment contract to submit to binding arbitration rather than bringing any employment-related claims to court.  Ms. Jones has spent over two years fighting to secure her day in court to try her ex-employer for the injustice that was done to her.  The Franken Amendment is intended to ensure that stories like this do not happen again.

Click here to see Senator Franken and Jamie Leigh Jones making it clear what is at stake if this amendment does not survive the Conference Committee.

Dow passes 10,000, fails to help workers!

I read in the Courant today that the Dow Jones passed 10,000 for the first time since last year’s down turn.  While this news means that stock prices are back up and that people with investment portfolios have regained some of their wealth, it is not necessarily good news for workers.

Walter Hamilton of the Tribune Newspapers reported that economist Allen Sinai stated that this recovery could be slower and generate fewer jobs than previous recoveries have, producing an even more pronounced gap between economic haves and have-nots. 

“There’s a dramatic night-and-day juxtaposition of a booming stock market and rich financial firms, and jobless Americans” Sinai said.  “Part of the prosperity we’re seeing on Wall Street is because of massive job losses, which preserve profits” of American Companies.

So, the rich get richer and the hard working employees of this state and of this country continue to suffer.   For my part, I don’t believe that our economy is “healthy” until and unless it provides good paying jobs for hard working employees and a legal system that helps protect the rights of those employees.  Corporations these days are not only “too big to fail”, they are too big to control.  As corporations get bigger, they dominate the employment market and have the power to shape the laws that affect employees in the workplace.  Mandatory arbitration agreements, class action waivers and other devices serve to deprive employees of the few rights they have left.  Look for more posts soon on these topics.