Powered By Blogger

Monday, April 21, 2008

Let's All Speak English Pt. 2...

CRITICAL AMENDMENT THAT PROTECTS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE POLICIES IN THE WORKPLACE BLOCKED BY SPEAKER PELOSI 
Amendment in the House that would have protected employers’ rights to require their employees to speak English on the job blocked by Pelosi and Hispanic Caucus


Speaker Nancy Pelosi, bowing to the demands of the Hispanic Caucus and the ACLU, has vowed to kill an amendment, passed by both the House and Senate, which prevents the funding of lawsuits by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against businesses that require their employees to speak English on the job.

As you know, U.S.ENGLISH has been on the frontlines of the battle to protect the rights of organizations, like the Salvation Army, to require their employees to speak English in the workplace. And we stand firmly behind Senator Lamar Alexander’s amendment to protect the rights of employers to implement English-language policies.

Yet, despite the majority of Americans who believe employers should be allowed to require their employees to speak English in the workplace, Speaker Pelosi has decided to back the Hispanic Caucus’s vocal demands to kill this amendment and hold up a $53 billion appropriations bill funding the FBI, NASA, and the Justice Department. That’s why U.S.ENGLISH is launching our urgent letter-writing campaign to ensure our elected officials know exactly where their constituents stand on this important issue. It is an outrage that instead of attending to their 56,000 case backlog, the EEOC is using your tax dollars to target businesses that require their employees to speak English in the workplace. In fact, last year, the EEOC filed over 200 lawsuits against employers over these rules. According to Alexander, “The Senate has declared English our national language, and requiring it in the workplace is not discrimination — it’s common sense.”

Despite promises by Pelosi to kill this critical amendment, U.S.ENGLISH believes it is crucial our elected officials hear from their constituents on this precedent-setting issue. While we don’t know for sure where this now-stalled amendment will end up when you receive our newsletter, it remains imperative we continue to urge our lawmakers to stand strong against the growing influence of radical, so-called “pro-immigrant” groups who seek to undermine English as our nation’s official language. U.S.ENGLISH will continue to monitor this situation and alert our members on this constantly evolving issue.

Contact your elected officials and ask them to support English as our nation’s official language. Or log on to our website at www.usenglish.org to learn about other ways to help in the fight to promote and preserve Official English in the United States. 
To contact us directly with questions or concerns, call us at (202) 833-0100or e-mail us at info@usenglish.org.

No comments: