Made in America: Your Employment Rights Were Taken-- Forcing You into Arbitration

President Trump will spend this week promoting “Made in America” products. This is long overdue, and I thank him.

This week, I am promoting “Made in America: How Your Employment Rights Were Taken from You.”

Case 1: Robert Gilmer was fired as a stock broker/sales manager at age 62. At the time, he was among the top performers in his firm. He believed he was fired due to age discrimination.

Gilmer sued his employer in federal court under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. His employer countered that he signed an arbitration agreement in which he waived his right to sue.

Gilmer argued that Congress created a right of employees to sue for age discrimination in court—thus, no one could take that away. 

He argued that he had no power to negotiate out of this mandatory arbitration agreement. 

He argued that large brokerage firms selected the arbitrators and therefore the forum was biased.

Gilmer lost his case in the Supreme Court in 1991. See Gilmer v. Interstate/Lane Johnson.

In civics, we learn that courts apply or interpret the laws. At work, we learn that we must choose between signing away our rights to a court hearing or being unemployed. Today, civil lawsuits are increasingly for the wealthy, not the average person.

Made in America? The illusion of justice.