Action Page

Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) have introduced the "Internet Freedom Preservation Act" (HR 5353) to stop relentless corporate attempts to set up roadblocks on the information superhighway. This legislation will prevent Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T from controlling the free flow on information on the Internet.

Click the link below to send a message of support to your congressman:

Support Net Neutrality

The following is a shocking and horrifying story about how an internationally known company is using a mandatory binding arbitration clause in an employment contract to hide the truth and prevent a woman who was raped to have her day in court and hold her attacker accountable.

“Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone (of Iraq), the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job.” – ABC News, 20/20

Read The Whole Story Here

What is just as appalling is that Jamie will never have an opportunity to hold her rapists or her employers accountable in a court of law. Her employment contract, like millions of other Americans, includes a Binding Mandatory Arbitration clause. So instead of having her day in court, she’ll be forced into a privatized justice system with no public record.

“Since no criminal charges have been filed, the only other option, according to Hutson, is the civil system, which is the approach that Jones is trying now. But Jones' former employer doesn't want this case to see the inside of a civil courtroom. KBR has moved for Jones' claim to be heard in private arbitration, instead of a public courtroom. It says her employment contract requires it.” – ABC News, 20/20

The Arbitration Fairness Act (H.R. 3010/S. 1782), would ban Binding Mandatory Arbitration clauses in contracts like Jamie’s, and also in most other consumer, franchise, and securities contracts.

Yesterday, December 12, 2007, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee heard testimony on the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007. So now is the time to write to your members of Congress and remind them to cosponsor AFA 2007.

So far, more than 60 members of Congress have joined the bill as cosponsors. Help add your members of Congress to the growing list by sending them a message right now.

Tell Your Representatives To Cosponsor the Arbitration Fairness Act Today

Join me in making sure that America never has to see another case like Jamie Leigh Jones, please take a moment and contact your Representatives today.

As always, thank you for your continued support,

Sean

Sean Peter Flaherty
People Over Profits Campaign

Stop Mandatory Arbitration

Right now companies are legally using your own signature against you. Sounds crazy, but it is true. Whether you’re buying a new home, taking a new job, or signing up for a credit card, you are most likely giving up your Constitutional rights.

Open a bank account … sign away your rights! Getting a cell phone … sign away your rights! Signing up for cable and internet service … sign away your rights! How about putting a loved one into a nursing home … you guessed it, you’re signing your and their rights away!

Corporations get you to sign away your rights and then turn around to use that signature against you when something goes wrong. How do they do it? With what is known in Washington-speak as Binding Mandatory Arbitration Clauses that are buried in the fine print of many consumer contracts.

The good news is we are beginning to get the attention of some in Congress, but there is a lot of work left. We have to wake up Washington so that they pass the Arbitration Fairness Act – the bill which will ban BMA clauses in consumer contracts for good!

Had enough of these corporate tricks? Then contact Congress today!

Contact Your Senators and Representatives and Tell Them To Cosponsor AFA2007!

Scandal after scandal at big businesses—such as corporate spying at Hewlett-Packard and stock options backdating at UnitedHealth Group—have shown the need for effective internal watchdogs against corporate wrongdoing.

Shareholders need strong and independent boards of directors to prevent such abuses.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed rules that would eliminate recent gains in shareholder power to determine the makeup of these company boards. These rules would make corporations less, not more, accountable to their shareholders.

Management has historically dominated the director election process for U.S. corporations.

CEOs could essentially handpick their own directors because shareholders only vote on candidates nominated by the directors themselves.

It’s as if the foxes had been picking other foxes to guard the henhouse.

It is important that long-term shareholders are able to nominate and elect truly independent directors—boards of directors need to be held accountable for their actions.

The federal courts last year gave all investors a real right to raise issues about director elections through the shareholder proposal process.

But the SEC now wants to effectively do away with these gains.

Tell the SEC it must prevent this from occurring and protect shareholders’ rights by rejecting these planned rules.

Click here to tell the SEC to protect shareholder rights:

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

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