Group Letter to U.S. House Supporting FAIR Act

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

September 18, 2019

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Kevin McCarthy
Minority Leader
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Speaker Pelosi and Minority Leader McCarthy:

The undersigned national and state organizations, representing millions of people from around the country, urge you to pass the “Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act” or “FAIR Act,” H.R.1423.

The FAIR Act would prevent companies from forcing aggrieved workers, consumers, servicemembers, nursing home residents, and small businesses into secretive, company-controlled, rigged, private arbitration systems. It would also stop corporations from banning consumer and worker class actions. And in line with the views of the vast majority of the American public, Republicans and Democrats alike,[1] the FAIR Act would not ban arbitration but rather stop corporations from forcing it on consumers, workers, patients, and small business who do not want it.

The urgent need for this legislation becomes clearer by the day. Employment discrimination, worker harassment, wage theft, cheating by banks and lenders, price-fixing cartels and other types of systemic corporate misconduct are widespread and growing problems. Forced arbitration clauses and class action bans make it nearly impossible for harmed workers, consumers, patients, servicemembers, and small businesses to seek accountability utilizing the federal and state laws that were enacted to empower and protect them. A hallmark of forced arbitration is that it is private and confidential, ensuring that misconduct stays secret, allowing companies to cover-up and continue discrimination, harassment, fraud and other types of illegal acts.

Corporate use of forced arbitration has grown exponentially. Over 90 percent of banks use forced arbitration against consumers,[2] 56.2 percent of nonunion private-sector workers are subject to forced arbitration[3] and by 2024, it is estimated that more than 80 percent of the private-sector nonunion workforce will be bound by forced arbitration.[4] The use of forced arbitration has become the focus of wide-ranging national outrage, and has generated new legions of grassroots support for this bill. Within the last nine months, 20,000 Google workers walked out to protest forced arbitration, as did workers at game developer company Riot Games. Google workers have now launched a much larger movement to end forced arbitration. Law students have formed the People’s Parity Project, also fighting and organizing to end forced arbitration and class action bans.

We join all of these grassroots efforts in supporting passage of the FAIR Act. This vital legislation would restore the rights of workers, consumers, servicemembers, patients, and small businesses to seek justice, and we strongly urge you to pass this legislation. For any questions or follow-up, please contact Joanne Doroshow, Center for Justice & Democracy, [email protected] or Remington Gregg, Public Citizen, [email protected]. Thank you.

Very sincerely,

Alliance for Justice

American Association for Justice

American Association of University Women (AAUW)

American Civil Liberties Union

American Museum of Tort Law

Americans for Financial Reform

California Employment Lawyers Association

Campaign for Accountability

Catholic Labor Network

Center for Auto Safety

Center for Biological Diversity

Center for Economic Integrity

Center for Economic Justice

Center for Justice & Democracy

Center for Progressive Reform

Church State Council

Committee to Support the Antitrust Laws

Consumer Action

Consumer Assistance Council, Inc.

Consumer Attorneys of California

Consumer Federation of America

Consumer Watchdog

Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety

Demand Progress

Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF)

Earthjustice

EarthRights International

Economic Policy Institute

Empire State Consumer Project

Employee Rights Advocacy Institute For Law & Policy

Equal Rights Advocates

Essential Information

Farmworker Association of Florida

Food & Water Watch

Fuse Washington

Googlers for Ending Forced Arbitration

Government Information Watch

Impact Fund

Justice in Aging

KidsAndCars.org

Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Level Playing Field

Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition

NAACP

National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum

National Association of Consumer Advocates

National Center for Transgender Equality

National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low income clients)

National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care

National Consumers League

National Disability Rights Network

National Employment Law Project

National Employment Lawyers Association

National Equality Action Team (NEAT)

National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund

National Organization for Women

National Women’s Health Network

National Women’s Law Center

NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice

New America’s Open Technology Institute

New York StateWide Senior Action Council

OVEC-Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition

People’s Parity Project

Protect All Children's Environment

Public Citizen

Public Justice

Public Knowledge

Public Law Center

Sciencecorps

Secure our Savings

Texas Watch

THE ONE LESS FOUNDATION

Woodstock Institute


[1]“National Survey on Required Arbitration,” Hart Research Associates, Feb. 28, 2019, available at https://www.justice.org/sites/default/files/2.28.19%20Hart%20poll%20memo.pdf

[2]Consumers Want the Right to Resolve Bank Disputes in Court, Pew, Aug. 17, 2016, available at https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2016/08/consumers-want-the-right-to-resolve-bank-disputes-in-court

[3]Alexander Colvin, The Growing Use of Mandatory Arbitration, Economic Policy Institute, April 6, 2018, available at https://www.epi.org/publication/the-growing-use-of-mandatory-arbitration-access-to-the-courts-is-now-barred-for-more-than-60-million-american-workers/

[4]Kate Hamaji, Rachel Deutsch, Elizabeth Nicolas, Celine McNicholas, Heidi Shierholz, Margaret Poydock, Unchecked corporate power; Forced arbitration, the enforcement crisis, and how workers are fighting back, Economic Policy Institute, May 20, 2019, available at https://www.epi.org/publication/unchecked-corporate-power/

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