Is Gang Rape A Typical Workplace Dispute?

This piece is lifted directly from the Huffington Post, they won’t mind. Kudos for Franken for putting this forward (he did get a lot of heat for his rape jokes prior to the election). Love the outrage from Jon Stewart, and how boldly those 30 Republicans stand up for corporate interests!

In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her Halliburton/KBR co-workers while working in Iraq and locked in a shipping container for over a day to prevent her from reporting her attack. The rape occurred outside of U.S. criminal jurisdiction, but to add serious insult to serious injury she was not allowed to sue KBR because her employment contract said that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private arbitration–a process that overwhelmingly favors corporations.

This year, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) proposed an amendment that would deny defense contracts to companies that ask employees to sign away the right to sue. It passed, but it wasn’t the slam dunk Jon Stewart expected. Instead the amendment received 30 nay votes all from Republicans. “I understand we’re a divided country, some disagreements on health care. How is ANYONE against this?” He asked.

Tags: men, power, rape, women, work