Compassionate Conservatism: U.S. Chamber of Commerce Edition

Raw Story reports the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sent out a mass email asking supporters to lobbying against Amendment 2588. The legislation forbids the Defense Department from doing business with any contractor that requires "employees or independent contractors sign mandatory arbitration clauses regarding certain claims. The amendment was written by Al Franken, in response to Jamie Leigh Jones being gang raped in Iraq. Jones was unable to take Halliburton and KBR to court. The

The U.S Chamber of Commerce email contained this myth.

Opponents of pre-dispute arbitration use anecdotes and a handful of narrow studies to
claim that the arbitration system is broken and favors companies, but in fact arbitration is more likely to result in positive outcomes for consumers and employees. Individuals fare as well, if not better, in arbitration disputes than they would have in court. The National Workrights Institute found that employees were almost 20% more likely to win employment cases in arbitration than those litigated in court. Further, a study in California showed that consumers won 66% of arbitration disputes brought against businesses. Studies examining other types of consumer related arbitration show similar, if not better outcomes for consumers.

The Fifth Circuit Court ruled that Jones could take her case to court. Judge Rhesa Hawkins Barksdale found that arbitration allowed Halliburton and KBR to not hear Jones' claims.

Under these circumstances, the outer limits of the “related to” language of the arbitration provision have been tested, and breached. Halliburton/KBR essentially asks this court to read the arbitration provision so broadly as to encompass any claim related to Jones’ employer, or any incident that happened during her employment, but that is not the language of the contract. We do not hold that, as a matter of law, sexual-assault allegations can never “relate to” someone’s employment. For this action, however, Jones’ allegations do not “touch matters” related to her employment, let alone have a “significant relationship” to her employment contract.

Under arbitration, no claims can not be heard in court or allowed to be made public. Arbitration was made to protect corporations. If that was not the case , why would the Chamber of Commerce be so hellbent on revoking Franken's amendment?