In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her co-workers while she was working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad. She was detained in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water, or a bed, and "warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job." (Jones was not an isolatedcase.) Jones was prevented from bringing charges in court against KBR because her employment contract stipulated that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private arbitration.
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) proposed an amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill that would withhold defense contracts from companies like KBR "if they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court." Speaking on the Senate floor yesterday, Franken said:
The constitution gives everybody the right to due process of law ... And today, defense contractors are using fine print in their contracts do deny women like Jamie Leigh Jones their day in court. ... The victims of rape and discrimination deserve their day in court [and] Congress plainly has the constitutional power to make that happen.
Why should the Sinning Senator have some 'splainin' to do?
It's not enough that he treated women as property in his past. It's not enough that he voted against the Ledbetter Equal Pay Bill, which mandates equal pay for equal work in the workplace. It's not enough that he voted against an amendment that would have expanded access to preventive health care services and education programs that help reduce the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and reduce unintended pregnancy. No ... he has to go and vote against this amendment which will give women their day in court against their attackers, and their defense contractor employers for letting it happen.
