Thread: RICHARD KIRK : The Right To Speak English

Suing English-only employers

By: RICHARD KIRK - For the North County Times



It seems that traditional service organizations now have perpetual bull's-eyes pasted on them. If it's not the Boy Scouts being evicted from Balboa Park for defying the creed of political correctness, it's the Salvation Army facing an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit for requiring employees to speak English on the job.

The suit against the bell-ringing charity was filed in March of this year and concerns a thrift store in Framingham, Mass., that fired two employees for violating an English-only policy. The EEOC sued the organization even though the employees had been given a year's notice and despite a ruling four years earlier by a federal judge in Boston that upheld the group's English-only policy -- a rule the court found promoted "workplace harmony."

(North County business owners might like to know that the EEOC filed more than 200 anti-English-only suits last year and that exemptions are granted based on the agency's standard for "compelling business necessity." Apparently, the ability to understand what employees are saying about their employer or other employees isn't "compelling" in the eyes of EEOC mandarins.)

In order to save businesses from this innovative bureaucratic interpretation of "civil rights" law, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., introduced legislation that protects employers with English-only policies from EEOC lawsuits. The provision passed both the Senate (75-19) and the House (218-186) but was killed when the House Hispanic Caucus threatened to derail critical tax legislation if Speaker Pelosi allowed the Alexander amendment (which was attached to a huge appropriations bill) to survive in committee.

So as things now stand, thanks to Hispanic Caucus Chair Joe Baca, D-Calif., the EEOC can bring employers to court for their English-only policies, and those businesses will either have to kowtow to bureaucrat lawyers or face litigation costs.

Meanwhile, as a recent Rasmussen poll indicates, Americans overwhelmingly support (77 percent to 14 percent) an employer's right to set English-only standards in the workplace. (Seventy-seven, by the way, is also the percentage of Americans that oppose giving drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants -- an electoral consensus that recently turned the political heads of Sen. Hillary Clinton and New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and that, in 2003, helped depose Gov. Gray Davis.)

Another Rasmussen poll found 87 percent of Americans agreeing that it is "very important" to speak English in the United States. Indeed, that sentiment is so widespread among Latinos that TV Azteca, Mexico's second largest network, has scheduled a 60-hour series of English classes for its U.S. affiliates. Apparently the network doesn't see English proficiency as a racist stalking horse but rather, as anchor Jose Samano asserts, a tool by which immigrants can increase their incomes by 50 percent or more.

Nevertheless, the EEOC, some Hispanic groups, and a persistent bilingual education lobby in California seem determined to undermine those cultural forces that have helped to integrate newcomers into American society. After all, for interest groups that profit from keeping Latinos in manageable barrios, Gov. Schwarzenegger's advice to immigrants to immerse themselves in English amounts to political poison.

-- Richard Kirk is a freelance writer who lives in Oceanside. Contact him at kirkrg@netzero.com.


http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/12 ... 2_3_07.txt

I can't believe we are having this argument. One language means more on-the-job saftey, effeciency, production and FAR LESS DISATRACTION. Some judges should not be judges becuase they are tooo easily corrupted. Any judge who rules against an English-only workplace is not stupid, they are on the take and should be exposed and labeled as such, PERIOD!

Joe Baca is a complete a-hole. I believe he is the one who called us "conservatives" here in Orange County "crackers." Only a Mexican Legislature in this screwed up State could get away with that. These people are traitors. They cater ONLY to illegals in this State and spit in our faces with ridiculous,frivolous laws. This is what will happen in every state if it isn't stopped. When other states get liberal latino's in their state legislature it will be over!!!

We need to stop electing people with Hispanic last names. Sorry, but it seems that every Hispanic legislator etc. want special treatment for illegal aliens. Also what is a Hispanic caucus doing on our legislating houses. What right does Bacca have, when THE MAJORITY wants ENGLISH ONLY in this country period threatening Namcy Pelosi and where is her backbone? Ut is this percise situation that proves that diveristy is NOT good for AMERICA. It should be what is good for the entire country not just illegal aliens.

Never mind...

The problem is when you have as many illegals as California and they DO vote they vote for these hispanics. Then we, the people, are defenseless. We were crying out 13 years ago and the other states didn't care or listen. Now its too late for California. Believe me where the illegals live is where the Mexicans get elected. Just look at Los Angeles. Do you think anyone with a brain would have elected Villaraigosa.

I have an advanced degree in psychology, years of experience as a social worker and an eligibility manager as well as over30 years as a Human Resource Manager. However, when I retired, realizing that I could not live on my retirement, I started "job hunting" in the fields of my employment experience. Lo and Behold, I could not find a job in my areas of expertise unless I could speak Spanish-expecially as an Eligiblity Worker. Isn't it ironic that EEOC is suing employers for insisting that their employees speak English only in the work place, but English speaking
Americans are refused employment because they don't speak Spanish?

My daughter is a military wife and her husband was just transferred back to San Diego from Hawaii after five years. She can't believe how San Diego has changed in that time. She works in the medical field and had no problem working full time, but now that she is in San Diego is running into the problem of finding work because she doesn't speak Spanish.

agrneydgrl wrote:

We need to stop electing people with Hispanic last names. Sorry, but it seems that every Hispanic legislator etc. want special treatment for illegal aliens.

Iv'e always said by the latin for the latin nothing but the latin. I don't know of one latin elected official that has voted for what's best for America and not simply what is best for latins. It would seem that they are latin far before being American.

Grandmom9 wrote:

Lo and Behold, I could not find a job in my areas of expertise unless I could speak Spanish-expecially as an Eligiblity Worker. Isn't it ironic that EEOC is suing employers for insisting that their employees speak English only in the work place, but English speaking
Americans are refused employment because they don't speak Spanish?

Yea, that just burns me up!

ENGLISH is THE language of OUR country, and ANY immigrant who REFUSES to ACCEPT that IMMUTABLE truth does NOT deserve to BE here!