Oct 1-2010:NWLP
9/28/10
10:01 AM
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Lilly Ledbetter, Labor Secretary Solis:
It’s time for Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act
By MARIYA STRAUSS
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Saying
woman workers have waited for fair
and equal pay for far too long, two no-
table advocates of the cause — Labor
Secretary Hilda Solis and pay equity
campaigner Lilly Ledbetter — told
Americans that it’s past time to pass the
Paycheck Fairness Act.
In a live event broadcast on the U.S.
Labor Department’s website Sept. 21,
the two urged lawmakers to approve
the legislation, now stalled, to give fe-
male workers more weapons to fight
pay discrimination.
Such pay discrimination is the big
reason women earn only 77 cents for
every dollar a male worker with com-
parable qualifications and experience
earns. And 19 years of pay discrimina-
tion led Ledbetter all the way to the
U.S. Supreme Court — which rejected
her case, saying employers cannot be
sued under Title VII of the Civil Rights
Act over pay discrimination if the
claims are based on decisions made by
the employer 180 days ago or more.
Congress later approved the Lilly
Ledbetter Act, restoring a worker’s
right to sue companies for pay discrim-
ination on the basis of sex, race, reli-
gion or other factors.
OCTOBER 1, 2010
The Paycheck Fairness Act would
amend the 1938 Fair Labor Standards
Act (FLSA) to update the sex discrim-
ination prohibition language and to in-
clude liability and punitive damages for
employers who pay women less than
men for doing the same work. It would
also forbid employers from retaliating
against women who ask about, discuss
or disclose their own wages or the
wages of another employee.
Ledbetter, a grandmother from
Gadsden, Ala., who has championed
pay equality for women following her
nine-year fight to recover hundreds of
thousands of dollars in lost income
from her job at Goodyear, said on the
webcast that young women entering
the workforce often do not anticipate
getting unequal pay.
“The women are shocked. They
cannot believe that we still are not com-
pensated equally,” she said. Ledbetter
urged young women to “do their re-
search on their prospective employers.”
And she encouraged them to make sure
they don’t accept a situation where they
earn less than their male counterparts,
because, she said, it is difficult to re-
coup lost income retroactive to the
starting salary.
Women shouldn’t “assume they can
start with less and catch up later,” she
said. “They will never catch up.”
Solis spoke about the need for more
data on how pay inequity impacts
women of color, and about the harsh ef-
fect of sex discrimination on low-wage
working women.
“I think in many cases low-wage
workers are in a situation where they
can’t speak up,” Solis said. “The work
they do is often the work that other peo-
ple won’t do. Home care and other
service-sector jobs where women are
becoming the majority. If we can make
sure that they get those benefits that
they all deserve, I think that will go a
long way toward helping all working
class people at that lower end.”
Responding to questions from the
audience, Solis had a veiled warning
for employers who might wish to fight
passage of the bill: “If you feel that
you’re always under the gun and you
can’t freely talk about those issues,” she
said, “I don’t know how productive
employees are going to be.”
Solis had a clearer message for
those who would oppose it on the
grounds that employees can simply use
existing anti-discrimination laws to sue
for the wages denied to them: “It’s
about preventing injustices in the work-
place,” she said. “In the end, where
there are negative outcomes, who ends
up paying? We do. Taxpayers do.”
(Editor’s Note: Mariya Strauss
wrote this article for the International
Labor Communications Association
and Press Associates Inc.)
DCTU bargaining in Portland enters mediation
Employees at the City of Portland
rallied in front of City Hall Sept. 29,
calling for a fair contract. Bargaining has
been moving at a snail’s pace, and last
week the District Council of Trade
Unions (DCTU), which negotiates on
behalf of eight union locals, was forced
into mediation.
The first session was Sept. 23, and it
didn’t go well.
According to union bargaining com-
mittee members, after waiting nearly
seven hours for a proposal from the city,
the session ended abruptly when they
were handed “one of the most regressive
bargaining proposals in the history of
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
DCTU/City of Portland bargaining.”
Members of the bargaining commit-
tee believe the City is not interested in
settling the contract and is forcing the
unions to move to a strike.
The City is pushing for significant
changes in contracting-out language and
major adjustments in shift times, senior-
ity, and overtime pay. It wants to freeze
all step increases in 2011-12, with no
cost-of-living raises this year, and pos-
sibly 1 to 5 percent COLAs in the next
two years. And it is refusing to guaran-
tee inclusion of dependents in the cost
of health care under new federal health
care legislation.
The parties are required to engage
in mediation for a minimum of 15
days. The last session was held Sept. 30,
after this issue went to press.
Bargaining can continue until one
or both parties declare an impasse, af-
ter which the parties have seven days
to submit their final offers to the State
Employment Relations Board. After
that, both parties enter into a manda-
tory 30-day cooling-off period. Bar-
gaining may continue during this time.
After the 30-day period, the City may
submit a final offer and the DCTU
may call for a strike vote, with 10 days
notice before walking out.
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