September, 14 2009, 02:12pm EDT
Forced Arbitration Is Ubiquitous, New Public Citizen Study Finds
Research Points to Urgent Need for Congress to Act
WASHINGTON
Mandatory binding arbitration, or "forced arbitration," is ubiquitous in many industries, according to a study released today by Public Citizen.
Seventy-five percent of companies in eight industries use forced
arbitration, the organization found in a study released a day before a
key congressional subcommittee holds a hearing on whether mandatory
binding arbitration is fair or voluntary.
In most cases, consumers are stripped of their right to go to court
over disputes when they open a bank or credit card account, obtain cell
phone service, hire a stockbroker or buy a house. The same is true
about half of the time when consumers buy computers or obtain cable or
Internet service.
The study, "Forced Arbitration: Unfair and Everywhere," is based on
inquiries of major credit card providers, banks, cell phone providers,
computer manufacturers, cable/Internet providers, auto dealers,
brokerages and home builders. The majority of data in the report was
obtained by Public Citizen researchers inquiring as consumers about
businesses' arbitration policies.
"Even though forced arbitration has been exposed as grossly unfair
to consumers, the practice remains ubiquitous in many industries," said
David Arkush, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch division.
"This means that millions of Americans have been stripped of their
right to hold corporations accountable in court."
Forced arbitration requires consumers to settle disputes before
secretive, private tribunals instead of courts. A 2007 Public Citizen
report revealed that arbitrators working for the National Arbitration
Forum (NAF) had ruled against consumers 94 percent of the time.
Consumer advocates have long alleged that forced arbitration is unfair
because it undermines corporate accountability and deprives people of
core protections against corporate wrongdoing. Americans believe they
should have the right to legal recourse - including a judge, jury and
the ability to appeal - and demand that decisions be based on law,
according to recent polling conducted by Lake Research Group. The same
poll also found that a majority of Americans - six in 10 - oppose
forced arbitration.
In July, Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson sued NAF, alleging
that it was financially connected to credit collection companies that
provided NAF with the bulk of its business. Swanson also alleged that
NAF had stopped referring cases to arbitrators who did rule in favor of
businesses and recruited individuals likely to rule against consumers
to serve as its supposedly "neutral" arbitrators. Five days after the
lawsuit was filed, NAF, the nation's largest arbitration firm
specializing in credit collection cases, announced it was closing its
massive consumer arbitration practice.
Just one day later, the American Arbitration Association (AAA) said
it would suspend its credit-collection practice because of "legitimate
concerns" raised by Swanson. Soon after, two major banks, Bank of
America and JPMorgan Chase announced that they, too, had dropped
binding mandatory arbitration from credit card contracts.
AAA has not suspended consumer arbitrations that do not involve debt
collection. A third leading arbitration firm, JAMS, has not suspended
any part of its consumer arbitration business. Today, Public Citizen
and its partners in the Fair Arbitration Now Coalition
(www.fairarbitrationnow.org) sent letters to AAA and JAMS urging them
to discontinue all forced arbitrations of consumer cases.
Despite NAF's settlement and AAA's concessions, forced arbitration
remains widespread in certain industries. Moreover, it can be difficult
or even impossible to learn many companies' policies on arbitration
before obtaining a product or service, Public Citizen found. The vast
majority of auto dealers Public Citizen contacted were unable or
unwilling to disclose their arbitration policies, often explaining that
they will not disclose that information until the final paperwork for a
sale is being signed. Most credit card companies refuse to disclose the
terms of their arbitration clauses until a consumer applies for a card
- a step that can jeopardize one's credit rating.
Public Citizen found ample evidence of arbitration's unfairness. One
major credit card provider twice referred to the NAF - a purportedly
neutral and independent company - as its "arbitration provision
division" and referred Public Citizen investigators to NAF for
information about the credit card provider's arbitration policies. A
cellular telephone provider reserves the right to sue its customers in
court while prohibiting its customers from suing it in court. Most
businesses that impose arbitration prohibit the use of class actions,
which are usually the only viable way for victims of systemic fraud to
obtain redress.
The continued use of forced arbitration coupled with overwhelming
evidence of the processes' unfairness points to the need for Congress
to pass the Arbitration Fairness Act, which would prohibit businesses
from forcing arbitration on consumers and employees. The Lake Research
public opinion polling showed that Americans support the Arbitration
Fairness Act by a margin of more than two-to-one, including majorities
of men and women, as well as Democrats, independents and Republicans.
As Swanson noted, NAF's consent judgment "cannot solve the systemic
problems with mandatory pre-dispute arbitration clauses in fine-print
consumer contracts."
Arkush urged Congress to act quickly to protect consumers.
"After our report about the one-sided rulings issued by NAF, the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce begged Congress to postpone taking action
until more information could be obtained," Arkush said. "Since then,
what we've learned about NAF is far worse than we could have imagined.
It is time to end the era of lawlessness and ensure that consumers can
hold corporations accountable for wrongdoing."
READ the report and letters.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
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Party Leaders 'Utterly Isolated' as College Democrats Back Campus Protests
"Each day that Democrats fail to stand united for a permanent cease-fire, two-state solution, and recognition of a Palestinian state, more and more youth find themselves disillusioned with the party," said the College Democrats of America.
May 01, 2024
Progressive lawmakers and rights advocates on Wednesday implored U.S. President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party to listen to young voters who oppose the government's funding of Israel's bombardment of Gaza, as the party's student organization announced its support for campus anti-war protests that have spread across the country over the past two weeks.
The College Democrats of America refuted Biden's suggestion last week that the protests are inherently antisemitic and urged the president to listen to the widespread calls for him to demand a permanent cease-fire in Gaza and end funding for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which is set to receive an additional $17 billion following Biden's signing of a foreign aid bill last week.
By failing to listen to those demands—backed by 77% and 56% of Democratic voters, respectively, according to recent polling—Biden risks losing crucial support from the voting bloc that the College Democrats has been tasked with engaging for decades.
"As College Democrats, we are committed to the re-election of President Biden and Democrats across down-ballot races in every corner of our nation," the organization said. "However, as representatives of youth across the country, we reserve the right to criticize our own party when it fails to represent youth voices... As young voters, we are well aware that come November, our votes will determine who wins the White House. The White House has taken the mistaken route of a bear-hug strategy for [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and a cold-shoulder strategy for its own base and all Americans who want to see an end to this war."
"Each day that Democrats fail to stand united for a permanent cease-fire, two-state solution, and recognition of a Palestinian state, more and more youth find themselves disillusioned with the party," warned the College Democrats.
The group added that "calling for the freedom of Palestinians is not antisemitic, and neither is opposing the genocidal acts of the far-right radical extremist Israeli government."
The statement was spearheaded by the organization's Muslim Caucus, led by Wake Forest University student Hasan Pyarali.
"To the students out there protesting we stand with you!" said Pyarali. "To those seeking to silence us, know this: we will never back down in our fight against hatred and genocide!"
Sunjay Muralitharan, vice president of the College Democrats and a student at the University of California, San Diego, toldThe New York Times that the rapid spread of mass protests at schools across the country—and the aggressive response by police, who have arrested more than 1,200 people with the tacit approval of Biden—has caused the organization to reevaluate its role in a critical election year.
"We're realizing that our duty as College Democrats is to be representatives of college students to the party, rather than vice versa," Muralitharan told the Times. "As it stands right now, young people starkly differ on the issue of Palestine/Israel from the Democratic Party apparatus. And throughout the nation, we're witnessing Joe Biden, Democrats across the ballot, losing scores of young voters over this issue."
The organization released its statement hours before the New York Police Department stormed the campus of Columbia University and forcibly removed students who had occupied a building and displayed a sign proclaiming it Hind's Hall, after six-year-old Hind Rajab, who was killed by the IDF in January along with paramedics whom Israel had promised safe passage in order to save the child.
Images of violent arrests have spread on social media in recent days, including a video of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville professor Steve Tamari, who was beaten and slammed to the ground by police at a protest at Washington University in St. Louis last weekend.
Intercept journalist Ryan Grim said the statement from the College Democrats, as well as the Fairfax County Democratic Committee's support for the campus protests, announced on Monday, showed that the party leadership has rendered itself "utterly isolated" by continuing to defend and fund Israel's military, even as it's killed at least 34,568 Palestinians—the majority of whom have been women and children.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) urged the party to "listen to the moral sentiments of young people... about ending this brutal war and paving a way for peace."
"Reminder: It's not anti-war protesters that will hurt Democrats politically, it's the war itself that will hurt Democrats politically," said former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner. "Protest is a pillar of democracy and Democrats can either listen to the protests and the polls, or not and face the electoral consequences."
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Overriding the opposition of more than 100 environmental groups, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed a bill on Tuesday that would strip gray wolves in the Lower 48 states of their protections under the Endangered Species Act.
The so-called Trust the Science Act, which was introduced by far-right election denier Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), passed by a narrow 209-205 margin. It would reimpose a Trump administration decision to delist gray wolves that was later overturned in federal court.
"This move by extremists in Congress to push forward an anti-wolf, anti-science bill is irresponsible and emboldens cruelty towards gray wolves," said Endangered Species Coalition executive director Susan Holmes.
"This is yet another troubling sign that our elected leaders in the House are increasingly choosing to subvert our nation's landmark environmental laws and ignore the biodiversity crisis that threatens wildlife populations around the globe with extinction."
There were once around 2 million gray wolves in North America, but they were nearly hunted to extinction with government support. After the federal government began to protect them in the 1960s, their numbers rebounded to around 6,000, but they only roam through less than 10% of their historic range in the lower 48 states.
Scientists have discovered that wolves are very beneficial for the ecosystems they inhabit; their reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park increased the park's biodiversity by controlling elk and deer that had overgrazed trees, allowing willows and aspens to thrive and attract the song birds and beavers that depend on them.
"The inappropriately named 'Trust the Science Act' not only puts endangered gray wolves at risk for extinction, but it completely undermines the purpose of the Endangered Species Act," Raena Garcia, senior fossil fuels and lands campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said in a statement. "The ESA is essential environmental legislation that needs to be strengthened, not weakened. As a keystone species that plays a vital role in preserving biodiversity, the livelihood of gray wolves can't be dictated by industry-driven politicians."
The Endangered Species Act Coalition and Friends of the Earth Action were two of the more than 100 groups that sent a letter to representatives on Monday urging them to oppose the bill. In the letter, they pointed out that the Trump-era ruling it is based on was overturned because of its faulty science: It based its determination for national wolves on only two populations, it did not define what it meant by a "significant" portion of the species' range, it did not consider what it means for gray wolves to have lost so much of their historic range, and it did not account for the fact that West Coast wolves and northern Rocky Mountain wolves have different ancestries. Despite these flaws with the decision, the bill would also prohibit courts from weighing in a second time.
"The 'Trust the Science Act' undermines the integrity of the ESA by forcing the reinstatement of the Trump administration's scientifically indefensible delisting rule and precluding judicial review, undermining the rule of law that holds government officials accountable in the courts," the conservation groups wrote.
Environmental organizations also argue that the bill would put wolves at even greater risk from human violence. In Wyoming, where wolves are delisted, a man recently injured a young wolf and showed it off at a local bar before killing it. When wolves were delisted during the Trump administration, a hunt reestablished in Wisconsin killed off up to a third of the state's wolves.
"The recent torture and killing of a young gray wolf in Wyoming shows how critical the Endangered Species Act protections are for the survival of this species core to our country's natural heritage," Holmes said.
The bill also comes as the Earth is losing species at such alarming rates that scientists say humans have likely instigated a sixth mass extinction.
"This is yet another troubling sign that our elected leaders in the House are increasingly choosing to subvert our nation's landmark environmental laws and ignore the biodiversity crisis that threatens wildlife populations around the globe with extinction," Robert Dewey, vice president of government relations for Defenders of Wildlife, said in a statement. "Wolves play hugely important roles in maintaining healthy ecosystems and cutting short their recovery will only harm our nation."
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Whatever the Senate decides, it is unlikely the bill would become law while President Joe Biden is in office. The Executive Office of the President's Office of Budget and Management issued a statement on Monday saying the Biden administration "strongly opposes" the bill, arguing that its passage "would undermine America's proud wildlife conservation traditions and the implementation of one of our nation's bedrock environmental laws."
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Pro-Genocide Mob Attacks Nonviolent Encampment, Beats Students at UCLA
Encampment organizers called the assault "nothing less than a horrifying, despicable act of terror."
May 01, 2024
A pro-Israel mob violently attacked a Gaza solidarity encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles overnight Tuesday, hurling fireworks at the structure and beating demonstrators as campus security and city police stood by.
Los Angeles Times higher education journalist Teresa Watanabe reported that members of the pro-Israel mob used explicitly genocidal language as they ripped down encampment barriers, yelling, "Second Nakba!"—a reference to the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes in 1948.
Pro-Israel counterprotestors started tearing down @UCLA encampment barriers and screamed "Second nakba!" referring to the mass displacement & dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Per @latimes @safinazzal on the scene with another video: pic.twitter.com/zSplnd1bYO
— Teresa Watanabe (@TeresaWatanabe) May 1, 2024
At one point, a student stepped out from behind the encampment walls to confront the mob, which quickly swarmed the student and brutally attacked him while he was on the ground attempting to shield his face from the blows.
200+ pro-Israel counterprotestors are attacking the @UCLA pro-Palestinian encampment. They started beating on one student and stomped another under a plywood board per @latimes @safinazzal on the scene. Where is UCLA security? pic.twitter.com/zjYNFWSK7r
— Teresa Watanabe (@TeresaWatanabe) May 1, 2024
Organizers of the UCLA encampment, which—like others on campuses across the U.S.—is aimed at pressuring the university to divest from companies profiting off Israel's war on Gaza, said in a statement that the attack was "nothing less than a horrifying, despicable act of terror" and condemned the university for doing nothing to keep students safe.
UCLA administrators have deemed the encampment "unlawful" and threatened participants with suspension or expulsion.
"For over seven hours, Zionist aggressors hurled gas canisters, sprayed pepper spray, and threw fireworks and bricks into our encampment," organizers said. "They broke our barriers repeatedly, clearly in an attempt to kill our community."
They added that campus security officers left the scene of the violence "within minutes" and "external security the university hired for 'backup' watched, filmed, and laughed on the side as the immediate danger inflicted upon us escalated."
"Law enforcement simply stood at the edge of the lawn and refused to budge as we screamed for their help," the statement continued. "The only means of protection we had was each other. We keep each other safe."
The passivity of campus security and Los Angeles police in the face of violence from the pro-Israel mob at UCLA drew comparisons to the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians are regularly harassed and attacked by settlers as Israeli soldiers watch—and often participate.
The Daily Bruin, which had student reporters on the scene, reported that "security and UCPD both retreated as pro-Israel counter-protesters and other groups attacked protesters in the encampment."
"There has been a minimal police presence on campus despite multiple events of counter-protesters antagonizing the encampment since Thursday," the newspaper added. "UCPD Chief of Police John Thomas said to The Daily Bruin that the force only had around five to six officers on duty. Officers came under attack while trying to help an injured person, and so they left."
The inaction of UCLA security and local police contrasts sharply with the vicious crackdowns on nonviolent pro-Palestinian demonstrators at universities across the country, including Columbia University in New York City late Tuesday.
Early Wednesday, The Daily Bruin published an editorial denouncing Chancellor Gene Block for doing so little "to ensure the protection of students who exercise their rights."
"The world is watching. As helicopters fly over Royce Hall, we have a question. Will someone have to die on our campus tonight for you to intervene, Gene Block?" the editorial asks. "The blood would be on your hands."
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