The Problem: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender People Can Be Fired On The Job For Simply Being Who They Are

You’re not reading that wrong.  In 31 states, it is perfectly legal to fire someone because of their sexual orientation.  But it gets worse!  In 39 states, it is perfectly legal to fire someone because of their gender identity / expression. 

What does that mean in practical terms?  It means that if you were a lesbian, and living in North Carolina, you could have worked at your job for 15 years, but when your homophobic boss sees your car leaving a local gay club, he figures out you’re a lesbian and fires you the next day you’re in the office.  If don't have union contract protections, and no state or federal law bars this type of discrimination, you have no recourse or remedy to help you get your job back. 

The Solution: Pass The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA)

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) would extend fair employment practices under federal law to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.  It does not create any “special rights,” but simply affords to all Americans basic protection from employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.  It is based on the labor principle that every worker should be judged solely on his or her merits as a worker.  ENDA applies the same procedures and similar, but more limited, remedies as other federal civil rights laws, like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

What ENDA Does Not Do

ENDA will not apply to small businesses, religious organizations, or the military.  In addition, ENDA will not collect statistics on the amounts of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender workers hired by different companies, nor will it establish any kind of quota system.  ENDA does not mandate that employers provide domestic partner benefits to their employees; our unions will need to continue to push forward that battle for inclusion. 

Talking Points For Labor Audiences

ENDA creates in federal law, the labor practice of honoring a person’s work for their work, not for who they are. 

According to a recent 2006 Gallup study, 89% of Americans believe LGBT people should have equal job opportunities. 

A broad coalition of labor unions, corporations, and community organizations have come out in favor of the passage of ENDA, including the AFL-CIO, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and SEIU.  In addition, over 430 of Fortune 500 companies have passed employment policies that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. 

While corporate employment policies are great standards to live by, the only options workers have to stop discrimination on the job that have teeth are a union contract and federal and state non-discrimination laws.  In one fell swoop, ENDA, would protect millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender workers who do not have the benefits and protections of a union contract. 

What You Can Do

ENDA will be introduced in Congress before the summer recess.  It is essential that labor mobilize our voice in support of this bill, before it makes it to the floor for a vote, which is predicted to happen around September 2007. 

There are several things that you can do, organizationally and individually to help make the dream of a country where LGBT people can work free from discrimination, a reality. 

Individually

Go to Pride At Work’s website, http://www.prideatwork.org and download, from our website, our ENDA action postcards.  The idea is simple. Download and print a postcard, and then make as many copies as you would like.  Pass them out to your friends, family, and co-workers and ask them to fill them out.  When you’ve gotten as many signatures as possible, please mail them to the national office.  We will collect, cull, and organize them via state, and then bring them en masse, to Senators’ offices when the bill hits the floor in the Senate. 

Organizationally

Has your union local endorsed ENDA?  If so, let us know!  If not, go to the Pride At Work website and download our ENDA Union Endorsement form.  Take it to your local, state fed, or CLC meeting, then once your organization endorses it- send the form to us.  We will take it from there.  We’ll add your local to a list of endorsing locals on the website, and we’ll send a form letter to your Senators and Representatives letting them know that your local has endorsed ENDA and that you expect them to co-sponsor and vote for the bill as well. 

If your international union has endorsed ENDA- make sure you call them and ask, as a member, that they lobby aggressively for ENDA and make it one of their top legislative goals for the year.  If your international union has not endorsed ENDA, download the endorsement form and demand they endorse it! 

Finally, get your union to speak out in favor of ENDA.  Our website has sample letter to the editors that you can get your union officials to sign on to and get placed in your local and statewide papers.  If our samples don’t work for you, give us a call and we’d be happy to work with your union and you to draft some op-eds and letters to the editors that would be appropriate for your union newsletter, local newspaper, or state-wide or national media. 

If you want to speak out, we want to help raise your voice, give us a call!