Dominique Strauss-Kahn - picked the wrong hotel for abuse

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One very important fact has been largely absent from the coverage of the sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and, until latterly, leading candidate to be the next president of France. The hotel housekeeper whom he allegedly assaulted was represented by a union.

The reason that this is an important part of the story is that it is likely that Strauss-Kahn's alleged victim might not have felt confident enough to pursue the issue with either her supervisors or law enforcement agencies, if she had not been protected by a union contract. The vast majority of hotel workers in the United States, like most workers in the private sector, do not enjoy this protection.

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.

In this way, the United States stands out from most other wealthy countries. For example, all the countries of western Europe afford workers some measure of employment protection, where employers must give a reason for firing workers. Workers can contest their dismissal if they think the reason is not valid, unlike the United States where there is no recourse.

Imagine the situation of the hotel worker had she not been protected by a union contract. She is a young immigrant mother who needs this job to support her family. According to reports, she likely did not know Strauss-Kahn's identity at the time she reported the assault, but she undoubtedly understood that the person staying in the $3,000-a-night suite was a wealthy and important person. In these circumstances, how likely would it be that she would make an issue of a sexual assault to her supervisors?

Housekeepers are generally among the lowest-paid workers at hotels, often earning little more than the minimum wage. It is a high turnover job, meaning that any individual housekeeper is likely to be viewed as easily replaceable by the management. If this housekeeper did not enjoy the protection of a union contract, is it likely that she would have counted on her supervisors taking her side against an important guest at the hotel? Would she have been prepared to risk her job to pursue the case?

We can never know how this particular woman would have responded otherwise – as, fortunately, she did have the protection of a union. However, it is likely that many similar assaults go unreported because the victims do not feel they can risk their jobs to pursue the case. They simply have to accept sexual harassment and even sexual assault as "part of the job".

There is a special irony to this situation given Dominique Strauss-Kahn's prior position. The IMF, along with other pillars of the economic establishment, has long pushed for reducing the rights of workers at their workplace. Specifically, they have pushed countries around the world to adopt measures that weaken the power of unions. The IMF has also urged western European countries to eliminate or weaken laws that prevent employers from firing workers at will. These laws, along with unions, are seen as "labour market rigidities" that prevent labour markets from operating efficiently.

In the dream world of the economists' textbook policies, all employers would have the ability to fire employees at will. There would be no protective legislation and no unions to get in the way. In that economist's dream world, then, powerful executives could be fairly certain that they would have licence to molest hotel workers with impunity.

Unfortunate how demonized unions are in this country... Such a shame. Especially at a time where the middle class is being strangled in its crib.

Unfortunate how demonized unions are in this country... Such a shame. Especially at a time where the middle class is being strangled in its crib.

Owner of IMF couldn't just pay for a hooker topic.

Is this Idiot Ball carrier the guy that was leading the IMF all these years? Oh gosh.

The problem with unions is that they tend to become very much like the politicians and the 'system' they are supposed to protect the worker from.

I remember an example of a certain chain of stores in California where the cashiers were earning roughly 40 dollars an hour and had 1 month long paid vacations and could not be fired unless there was a damn good reason for it.

Now, I do not think 1month paid vacation nor the protection from being fired for no reason is wrong. however, the 40 an hour wage for a cashier job -is- very wrong. That wage was there because over the years the union had contractually wrestled with the umbrella company the chain of stores belonged to for ridiculous privileges. The umbrella company ended up selling the chain of stores to another group who promptly moved the stores to other states because of the high cost of dealing with that union.


Unions are a good thing when they operate like a co-op entity..but very bad when they operate like a law firm out to make profit.


As for this IMF guy... lock him up and throw away the key.

Bump as the other Strauss-Kahn thread has been bumped.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs5_gB582IM[/youtube]

Dominique Strauss-Kahn's accuser wasn't just a girl working at a hotel -- she was a working girl.
The Sofitel housekeeper who claims the former IMF boss sexually assaulted her in his room was doing double duty as a prostitute, collecting cash on the side from male guests, The Post has learned.
"There is information . . . of her getting extraordinary tips, if you know what I mean. And it's not for bringing extra f--king towels," a source close to the defense investigation said yesterday.
The woman was allegedly purposely assigned to the Midtown hotel by her union because it knew she would bring in big bucks.
"When you're a chambermaid at Local 6, when you first get to the US, you start at the motels at JFK [Airport]. You don't start at the Sofitel," the source said. "There's a whole squad of people who saw her as an earner."
The woman also had "a lot of her expenses -- hair braiding, salon expenses -- paid for by men not related to her," the source said. ...
Sources also told The Post Strauss-Kahn's probers uncovered evidence that she was part of a pyramid scheme that targeted immigrants from her native Guinea.
"We have people who have been victimized, who have claimed she ripped them off. Nice working people from her neighborhood," a source said. ...

A spokesman for the hotel union denied it placed the victim at the Sofitel.

Recall seeing this about the maid that has accused the former French IMF boss of rape. Guess she worked for a union - that might have been taking advantage of her.

"DSK's side claims accuser a hooker"

http://isteve.blogspot.com/2011/07/dsks ... ooker.html

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