Raising Awareness of Damage Done By Mandatory Arbitration and Supporting the Fair Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Madam Speaker, I really appreciate my colleague setting up this Special Order to talk about something that is so incredibly important and often not really brought to the surface.

I am here today to join my colleagues in support for the FAIR Act, because I don't believe that victims of racial discrimination should be forced into a secretive process in which they have no access to justice and accountability.

This is especially important to me because of the story of two Floridians, Glenda and Peter Perez. Both worked for Cigna until forced arbitration absolutely ruined their lives.

As reported by Business Insider, everything was going well and, ``They were living in a newly built home in Ruskin, Florida, happily raising their three kids.'' That is what they say about themselves. But due to forced arbitration, things turned for the worse.

Two years ago, Glenda, who is Latinx, was fired after reporting racial discrimination. Unknown to her, buried in the fine print of the employment agreement she signed along with other onboarding documents when she was first hired was a forced arbitration clause, so Glenda had no choice but to go into forced arbitration proceedings.

But as the article notes, ``Instead of the simple and fair process that arbitration promises to be, Perez saw her claim dismissed without so much as a hearing, only to learn later that her apparently independent arbitrator was so friendly with the attorney representing Cigna that the arbitrator invited him to his 50th birthday party.''

To no surprise, the arbitrator sided with Glenda's employer, Cigna.

When her husband, Peter, complained about the unfairness of the process and how the arbitrator truly was not independent, guess what? He too was fired.

Now Glenda and Peter are struggling to support themselves and their three children and trying to fight their wrongful termination in court.

No worker should ever have to go through what Glenda and Peter have endured. This is why I support ending forced arbitration by voting for the FAIR Act.

Madam Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues who care about justice, who care about fairness, to support the FAIR Act.

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