Pentagon Workers Stage Protest Ahead of Obama’s State of the Union

Image gives credit to Washington Post.

Just a few days before President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union speech, a group of workers from the Pentagon’s food courts staged a protest in several federal buildings to voice out their concerns about their low wage and poor working conditions.

Approximately 50 workers from the Pentagon’s food court skipped their work shifts to go on strike in an aim to remind the President about the recent promise he made during his first cabinet meeting this year. In his speech, Obama pledged to use executive action to help wage earners and to combat income inequality.

Apparently, the workers hope that the Obama’s recent promise would mean a guaranteed workplace standard at companies operating in government buildings.

Organizers reportedly said that another 50 non-union workers likewise went on strike from their food service jobs in other federal buildings.

The event was organized by Good Jobs Nation, a group supported by the Change to Win union federation and other worker advocacy organizations.

“The reason all of our work over the last six strikes, and why today’s strike, matter is because next week on Tuesday, President Barack Obama is going to deliver his State of the Union speech,” Change to Win’s spokesperson, Joseph Geevarghese, said.

Issues that the workers grieve for include lack of insurance, sick pay and vacation leave, according to reports.

Meanwhile, for the workers who joined the protest but fear of retaliation, McDonald’s Pentagon restaurant assured that its employees who participated in the protest and returned to work had been welcomed back and scheduled to work their regular shifts, a report said.

Unfortunately for the other workers who engaged in the activity, some reportedly received a call from their supervisors telling them to take the rest of the week off. They aren’t sure whether that means they had been fired.

As of this writing, Pentagon is yet to give comment on the matter.

Despite the existing labor laws, retaliation is still common not only in Los Angeles but also across the nation. In fact, just a few days ago, a federal labor board slapped a giant retailer with labor violation complaint, alleging that the retailer violated the rights of the workers who participated in a nationwide protest.

Once again, an employment lawyer herein reminds everyone that workers are entitled to their rights, particularly when it comes to the existing labor laws. “Failure to honor employees’ rights may result to serious labor charges and severe penalty,” he added.

Employment Non-discrimination Act (ENDA) Gets a Go Signal from Senate Committee

Just after the entire nation lawfully welcomes same-sex marriage in the society through the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), here is another first in the United State’s historic events.

Early this month, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community got another reason to celebrate as a senate committee passed the Employment Non-discrimination Act (ENDA) that would end employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Last July 10, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions has made the remarkable approval of the bill. All democrats backed the bill along with three Republicans – Sen. Mark Kirk (Ill.), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Ak) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (Ut).

In her statement, Murkowski claimed that she believe that individuals in the workforce should be judged on how they can do the job and not on their sexual orientation. “Improvements might be in order to in the form of floor amendments, but discrimination should never be tolerated in the workplace.” She added.

Since ENDA was first introduced in Congress in 1994 by Rep. Jared Polis (D-Co) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Or), and has gotten some hearings for years, never it had earned a vote on the House or Senate floor since November, 2007, when it passed the House by 234-184.

Ironically, during the recent discussion, the committee only spent 15 minutes discussing the bill that has been stagnated for long years before eventually passing it.

In a statement issued by Harkin applauding the bipartisan’s great effort in crafting the bill, he hopes that the full Senate will finally take up the bill by fall. Also, the White House and even Pres. Barack Obama himself issued a statement lauding the committee’s recent action and subsequently pressed the House to move forward on this bill that would put an end to one of America’s biggest problem in the workforce, the employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

For years, Obama has long been known to be a supporter of ENDA. Thus, in the past few weeks, he has been repeatedly calling for the approval of the said bill.

So far, the current federal law prohibits employment discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin, age and disability. Unfortunately, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is excluded in its coverage. Thus, if ENDA would be passed into law, the GLBT workers would be given with strong, lasting and comprehensive protections against employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, explained by a labor discrimination attorney.

Obama Pushes Bill to End Employment Discrimination against Gay and Lesbian

In the past few days, the Employment Non-discrimination Act (ENDA) has been continuously gaining significant attention from several lawmakers. In fact, recent news report claimed that another senator, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, has joined the pool of lawmakers co-sponsoring the bill.

In addition, making things better for the bill is that the President Barack Obama himself is also making effort in pushing the same.

The media has confirmed that Obama endorsed the ENDA legislation that would protect the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) from being discriminated in the workplace on the bases of gender identity or sexual preferences.
 s announced by Obama during the celebration of LGBT Pride Month at the White House. His announcement was taken as another one great victory by the LGBT community and advocates.

“In 34 states, you can be fired just because of who you are or who you love. That’s wrong. There’s a bipartisan bill moving forward in the Senate that would ban discrimination against all LGBT Americans in the workplace, now and forever. We need to get that passed. I want to sign that bill. We need to get it done now”, Obama cited during the event.

For years, gay rights advocates have been waiting for Obama to throw his stance behind the controversial legislation that was actually repeatedly introduced and stagnated in Senate for almost a couple of decades.

Now, after Obama called for a prompt action regarding the said bill, a Los Angeles discrimination attorney speculated that the same would likely get a good shot in Congress this time.