(audio) Jerame Davis: HRC is the largest LGBTQ civil rights organization in the country-probably the world. They’re a massive organization. So they carry a lot of weight here in Washington especially with lawmakers and so forth but they also carry a lot of weight in corporate America. They are in many ways using their corporate equality index which is kind of their guide for how LGBTQ friendly a particular corporation is.”
That’s Pride At Work Executive Director Jerame Davis on the latest edition of the AFL-CIO’s State of the Unions podcast. (audio) “But the problem is that when you look at a lot of these corporations that they’re grading and they’re giving them great scores--100, 90, etcetera, they’re really awful corporations. The tagline for the corporate equality index is great places to work for LGBTQ people, and that’s literally how they bill it as LGBT people could work here and would be supported. And then they give 90s to companies like Walmart that treat their employees terribly and pay them low wages and give them no benefits. And in fact, they had to rescind Walmart’s score last year because of a lawsuit, a transgender discrimination lawsuit that was won and HRC decided to rescind their score that year. Tim Schlittner: Big deal. Jerame Davis: Yeah but it’s incredibly problematic that this is more of a PR campaign for corporations than an actual guide to how LGBTQ friendly they are because we all know that corporate policy isn't worth the paper it’s written on. They enforce it when they want to enforce it unless there’s a union there to enforce it. So giving these corporations these great scores and then those corporations of course then release press releases of their own saying look how great we are with the LGBTQ community and some of these corporations like Wells Fargo and T-Mobile--just go down the list and they’re just horrible the way they treat their employees and in some cases the way they’re treating the environment and our country.” Catch “State of the Unions” wherever you listen to podcasts. For the latest local labor calendar listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. In today’s labor history, on this date in 1880, Agnes Nestor was born. President of the International Glove Workers Union and the longtime leader of the Chicago Women's Trade Union League, she began work in a glove factory at age 14. Today’s labor quote is by Haymarket martyr Albert Parsons, born on this date in 1848. Albert Parsons, who said: “Let the voice of the people be heard!” Union City Radio is supported by our friends at Union Plus. Summer is here, which means it’s a cool time to take advantage of union members savings on theme and water park tickets. Visit unionplus.org/entertainment.
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