FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Sept. 21, 2011 Contact: David Elliot, USAction 202.263.4567, 202-607-7036 (cell)
250,000 AMERICANS SAY ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: STOP DISCRIMINATING AGAINST UNEMPLOYED WORKERS!
FAIR EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY ACT IS A GOOD FIRST STEP TOWARD PUTTING AMERICA BACK TO WORK, PASSAGE OF AMERICAN JOBS ACT
Washington, D.C. – USAction today delivered a quarter of a million petition signatures to members of Congress and thanked the co-sponsors of legislation to ban hiring discrimination against unemployed workers.
USAction, joined by Change.org, ColorofChange.org and CREDO Action, this summer launched an online petition campaign to ban hiring discrimination after a groundbreaking study published by the National Employment Law Project showed that employers of all sizes in every region of the country are using recruitment and hiring policies that expressly deny employment to the unemployed – simply because they are not working.
The petition signatures, collected between July and September, express outrage at discrimination against unemployed workers, and call on job listing websites such as Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com to stop publishing ads that discriminate against the unemployed.
USAction delivered the petition signatures today to the original co-sponsors of the Fair Employment Opportunity Act, Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-CT, and Hank Johnson, D-GA, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT. A proposal to ban hiring discrimination is now part of President Obama’s American Jobs Act.
“Ending hiring discrimination is a matter of doing what’s right,” said USAction President William McNary. “It’s the first step toward fixing our economy and making America whole again. But we need to go farther and thoroughly rebuild our economy, creating good jobs for everyone in America. This is why I support the Fair Employment Opportunity Act – and why I support the American Jobs Act.”
Change.org Director of Organizing Jess Kutch said the issue of hiring discrimination was first brought to Change.org’s membership by unemployed activist Kelly Wiedemer, whose story was featured in the New York Times.
“Witnessing an unemployed business analyst’s campaign against a massive corporation go viral has been incredible,” Kutch said. “With no budget and armed with only a laptop, Kelly Wiedemer has managed to recruit tens of thousands of supporters in all 50 states. Change.org is about empowering anyone, anywhere to demand action on the issues that matter to them, and it has been an honor to provide a platform for her campaign.”
“This type of discrimination hurts everyone who’s looking for work, but it disproportionately impacts Black and Latino Americans,” said Rashad Robinson, ColorofChange executive director. “Black Americans are nearly twice as likely to be unemployed as White Americans, and Latinos are also unemployed at higher rates. Whether it’s intended or not, discrimination against the unemployed is discrimination against Black and Latino Americans.”
Becky Bond, political director of CREDO Action, adds: “In the midst of a jobs crisis, there’s something fundamentally unfair and perverse about telling unemployed people they can’t apply for a job simply because they don’t already have one.”
The NELP study reviewed job postings that appeared on four of the nation’s most prominent online job listing websites: CareerBuilder.com, Monster.com, Indeed.com and Craigslist. It identified more than 150 ads that openly discriminated based on employment status. The overwhelming majority of the discriminatory ads required that applicants “must be currently employed.”
Since the NELP study was released, Indeed.com has announced it will no longer accept ads that discriminate. President Obama has spoken out against hiring discrimination and the number of House sponsors of the Fair Employment Opportunity Act is now up to 43.
USAction’s campaign is part of a larger USAction effort to pass robust job creation legislation, extend federal unemployment insurance through 2012 and build an economy and middle class that works for everyone.
USAction helped lead the December 2010 fight to extend UI benefits and has since organized a base of under- and unemployed workers across the country to join our fight for jobs. USAction supports the American Jobs Act and Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act.
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