From Today’s New York Times:
E.E.O.C. Sues Kaplan Over Hiring
The print story in the newspaper had a different headline. It read: “Hiring Suit Takes on Bias Based on Credit”.
Add this to the story regarding employers not wanting to hire people who are actually unemployed and you have the makings of an under-class of people whose lumpen prole status could rapidly become stigmatizing enough for the dwindling middle class to see elimination of this class as a way of getting more of the 40% of the pie that doesn’t go to the ultra rich.
Credit checks of people enduring long term unemployment while in the midst of a depression. Are these fucks insane? There is this level of class rage in this country that is so near the surface that stories of people walking into the employer’s offices and killing people don’t surprise or puzzle me. The opposite puzzles me, “Why so few?”
It is as if the corporations are looking to rub salt in the wounds they inflicted, or pour gasoline on a smoldering fire.
From The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/business/22kaplan.html?ref=discrimination
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: December 21, 2010
Sending a sharp warning to employers nationwide, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued the Kaplan Higher Education Corporation on Tuesday, accusing it of discriminating against black job applicants through the way it uses credit histories in its hiring process.
The lawsuit, an unusual intervention by the federal government on the issue, comes amid rising concerns that employers are denying jobs to applicants with damaged credit histories, even in cases where creditworthiness does not appear to be directly relevant to the job.
Several states, including Hawaii, Washington, Oregon and Illinois, have banned or severely limited the use of credit reports in hiring, partly out of worry that the practice could prevent unemployed, financially pressed Americans from getting back into the work force. Other states and Congress have considered similar laws.
Private and government surveys have suggested that about half of all employers use credit histories in at least some hiring decisions.
Justine Lisser, an E.E.O.C. spokeswoman, said that credit histories were often inaccurate and might not be a good indicator of a person’s qualifications for a particular job. (No shit! Sherlock.) “Credit histories were not compiled to show responsibility,” she said. “They were compiled to show whether or not someone was paying the bills, which is not always the same thing.”
Continue reading at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/business/22kaplan.html?ref=discrimination
On a more optimistic note…
The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/business/22labor.html?ref=business
U.S. Proposes Posted Notice of the Right to Unionize
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: December 21, 2010
The National Labor Relations Board said on Tuesday that it would require companies to post notices on their bulletin boards — and perhaps send out e-mail— to inform employees of their right to unionize under federal law.
A day earlier, the labor board’s acting general counsel said that he would push for stronger action to create a fair atmosphere for unionization drives, perhaps by letting unions post materials on a company’s bulletin board if a company was found to have committed serious violations during such a drive.
These moves, part of a series of recent pro-union actions by the labor board under President Obama, upset companies and business groups.
“These actions are consistent with a general ramp-up of enforcement against employers we are seeing across the board,” said Randel K. Johnson, senior vice president for labor policy at the United States Chamber of Commerce.
Continue reading at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/business/22labor.html?ref=business
Why should any one possibly think the Chamber of Commerce could have a valid opinion on this? Asking one of their representatives is like asking a Confederate slave owner if black people are oppressed by slavery.
The Chamber of Commerce is an anti-labor ultra right wing organization that represents the the interests of the corporations which exploit the workers. It is their job. Ask union representatives if this is necessary, they represent workers.