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/
The Center for Justice & Democracy is the only national consumer organization in the country exclusively dedicated to protecting our civil justice system. If you'd like more information, please contact us.
