From Think Progress:
In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her co-workers while she was working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad. She was detained in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water, or a bed, and “warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she’d be out of a job.” (Jones was not an isolated case.) Jones was prevented from bringing charges in court against KBR because her employment contract stipulated that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private arbitration.
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) proposed an amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill that would withhold defense contracts from companies like KBR “if they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court.” Speaking on the Senate floor yesterday, Franken said:
The constitution gives everybody the right to due process of law … And today, defense contractors are using fine print in their contracts do deny women like Jamie Leigh Jones their day in court. … The victims of rape and discrimination deserve their day in court [and] Congress plainly has the constitutional power to make that happen.
Watch Franken’s speech:
Thirty Republican Senators voted against the amendment:
| NAYs —30 | ||
| Alexander (R-TN) Barrasso (R-WY) Bond (R-MO) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Corker (R-TN) |
Cornyn (R-TX) Crapo (R-ID) DeMint (R-SC) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY) Graham (R-SC) Gregg (R-NH) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) |
Kyl (R-AZ) McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Wicker (R-MS) |
This is completely outrageous and gob-smacking evidence that the Republican party will go to any length to defend corporate interests over the rights of individuals. Apparently for thirty U.S. Republican Senators gang rape is okay and is something to be defended but not defunded.
Employment is a voluntary contract between the employer and the employee. The employee is given plenty of time to read over the contract. She is bound by the contract. However, I do not beleive that the supreme court would hold this contract to be constitutional. It's to vague. You cannot be wronged and not have your day in court when it comes to charges of this matter. The way she needs to go is to bring individual charges against the men that raped her and go from there. With the amendment in question, you should never hold a company responsible for the criminal acts of the individual if it does not pertain to the company's M.O. For example, If the company is a bank and the employee is laundering money through the bank, then you can sue. But the rape was commited by individuals on their own accord. They did not use the company to commit this crime, therefore the company cannot be sued.