The Union Factor in the DSK Case
Would Dominique Strauss-Kahn's alleged victim have been as quick to tell authorities her story if she hadn't been a union member? Maybe not, The Guardian's Dean Baker points out.
Would Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s alleged victim have been as quick to tell authorities her story if she hadn’t been a union member? Maybe not, The Guardian’s Dean Baker points out. –KA
“Comment is free America” in The Guardian:
This matters because under the law in the United States, an employer can fire a worker at any time for almost any reason. It is illegal for an employer to fire a worker for reporting a sexual assault. If any worker can prove that this is the reason they were fired, they would get their job back and probably back pay. (The penalties tend to be trivial, so the back pay is, unfortunately, not a joke.)
However, it is completely legal for an employer to fire a worker who reports a sexual assault for having been late to work last Tuesday or any other transgression. Since employers know the law, they don’t ever say that they are firing a worker for reporting a sexual assault. They might fire workers who report sexual assaults for other on-the-job failings, real or invented.
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The combination of sex, hotels and criminal charges seems to be a common theme in Dominique Strauss-Kahn's world, and it has landed him in another legal mess -- this time in the former IMF chief's homeland of France, where he's caught up in a case known there as the "Carlton affair."
New York City’s hotels have agreed to arm housekeepers with personal panic buttons for use in emergencies, including the event of unwelcome advances from guests. The decision likely results from an increased concern for worker safety stirred up by the alleged sexual assault of a housekeeper by former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn last May.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn is a dead parrot. He has no political future but does not yet seem to understand this.
This week on Truthdig Radio, in collaboration with KPFK, we hear about the dark side of international freight; the downside of DSK's dismissal; the power of journalism, and the fall of the Soviet Union.This week on Truthdig Radio: the dark side of international freight; the downside of DSK's dismissal; the power of journalism, and the fall of the Soviet Union.
A judge in New York on Tuesday dismissed all charges in the sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former chief of the International Monetary Fund. (more)
Prosecutors have filed to dismiss all charges against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, writing that his alleged victim "has not been truthful on matters great and small." Strauss-Kahn was accused -- and virtually convicted by many news reports -- of attempted rape in May.
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