Those who undergo arbitration can’t speak out b/c they may have a gag rule or are job hunting (having your name in the media as someone who sued a former employer doesn’t help). We’re grateful to Peter & Glenda for sharing their story about taking on Cigna. They continue to look for work after both being terminated, so please check out their resumes and see if you know of any opportunities: bit.ly/peterperez and bit.ly/glendaperez. #endforcedarbitration

In her 20s, most people are just starting their careers. Susan Fowler, however, had already sent shockwaves through the tech industry with her 3,000 word essay about a culture of sexual harassment and gender discrimination at Uber. Fowler has called for the end of forced arbitration as a clear solution to the problems of inequity in the workplace. Read her full op-ed at http://bit.ly/susanfowleroped.

In 2008 years ago, 69,000 current/former employees of Sterling Jewelers filed charges of sexual harassment, discrimination & wrongful termination. Each was separately forced into arbitration & still awaits her verdict. A sample of the 250 statements from women are listed on the law firm’s website. The victims span CA, SC, TX, SC, MO, TN, IL, NJ, NC, LA, MN, CT, DE, FL, OH, NY, IN, PA, MI, MA, GA, AR, VA, WV, CO, MD, and more. The company’s stock quickly dropped by $750M and led to two shareholder derivative lawsuits. Read the original Washington Post story here. This article from the NYTimes is excellent.

Loretta Lee defied her arbitration agreement with Google and filed a court case for wrongful termination after several experiences with sexual harassment and discrimination. She shared her story with us. After watching this video, you must read this interview with Loretta’s lawyers: bit.ly/LorettaLeeLawyers #endforcedarbitration #googlewalkout #forcedarbitration

Tech is a young industry that could learn a thing or two from the restaurant world, especially from the woman who blew the whistle on multi-millionaire chef John Besh for creating a culture of harassment and discrimination at Besh Restaurant Group. Hear Lindsey’s advice on forced arbitration - thank you @lkreynolds for your courage. #endforcedarbitration #googlewalkout #forcedarbitration #timepersonoftheyear #johnbesh @nolanews

Also check out what happened with the show Bones.

Richard Heggins (NY) is one of the thousands of workers Chipotle auto-clocked out of shifts without pay while he continued working & cleaning. "Chipotle has been fighting claims of wage theft lodged in federal court by current and former workers since July 2013, with the army of plaintiffs having grown to about 10,000 strong. Back in August, the company won a major victory by persuading a federal judge in Denver to eject more than 2,800 of those workers from the court proceedings because they had signed an agreement to bring their claims only via arbitration." Read more at here.

Menards’ 300 home improvement stores span the country. Despite $10B in annual sales, Menards’ workers from Iowa to Louisiana must fight to get paid. But that fight has lived in the shadows of arbitration.

Tia Holloman (MD) was sexually assaulted while working at Circuit City. But since arbitration isn’t in the court system, if a company goes bankrupt like Circuit City did, you often aren’t entitled to part of the bankruptcy proceedings. Tia continues to advocate for the end of forced arbitration Watch her video and then listen to her extended radio interview with her lawyer to learn more detail.

When Navy reservist Kevin Ziober (CA) was fired for serving his country, he tried to sue for violation of his USERRA (Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994). But his employer BLB Resources tried to silence him by forcing him into arbitration. Read the full story here.

CleanNet USA preys on non-English speakers to open franchises with their savings, but then never make a profit. The franchise agreement has a clause that not only forces franchisees to participate in individual arbitrations, but requires them to participate in commercial arbitration (more burdensome than employment arbitration). In commercial arbitration, parties are assumed equal. But low-income janitorial workers can't afford the costs. Jose Sanchez tried to fight the practice, but CleanNet compelled him into individual arbitration (see bit.ly/cleannet-motion).

Flight attendants at Alaska Airlines & WestJet have come out in droves with the #MeToo movement to break their arbitration agreements to report being drugged & raped across the US & Canada. Arbitration protected their harassers and airlines, but no more. Read more here.

Walmart never had a direct arbitration agreement w/ its temp workers from LaborReady, but benefited from LaborReady's own agreement w/ its employees - forcing a wage theft suit into arbitration. Read more here.

Serving up venti-sized violation of workers’ rights, Starbucks has compelled arbitration in three cases (that we know of) wage theft, labor violations and discrimination for sexual orientation. Employees started a petition to end forced arbitration: https://www.coworker.org/petitions/stop-forced-arbitration-at-starbucks

Workers from Adecco, one of Google’s suppliers, walked out in protest in March in Chicago due to a wage theft operation with another Adecco customer OSI Group. However, Adecco also has forced arbitration in their contracts. Footage courtesy of Chicago Workers Collaborative & Univision.

The following 30 suppliers work with all the big companies and force arbitration on their employees, which often come from the most vulnerable communities.

The pharma titan put arbitration ‘agreements’ in an online training module. Amy Skruse (NJ) found out when she filed for discrimination, though she is not the only person who has filed issues with Pfizer. The judge summed it up perfectly: