A Union Maid Reported Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Sexual Assault

This point should have been mentioned in a NYT article on the risk of sexual assault/harassment that housekeepers face in hotels. As the article notes, many housekeepers are reluctant to bring such attacks to the attention of their supervisors and/or law enforcement both out of embarrassment, but also out of fear of losing their jobs.

In this particular case, the housekeeper belonged to a union that has provisions in its contract that explicitly require the management to take cases of sexual assault or harassment seriously. This meant the housekeeper knew that she could make a complaint to management and not worry about being ridiculed or putting her job at risk. This fact would have been worth mentioning in the article.

If only the unions could protect her from abuse in medical markets
written by Rachel, May 21, 2011 10:46

I don't want to minimize the value of being protected from on-the-job abuse. But I feel that the unions are failing their members in a very important way. They seem to suffer from Bernie Sanders' bias, his unwilling to think critically about Big Medicine. So they aren't pushing back against the cost inflation that leads to job losses. And they don't even have Sanders' excuse of being from a very small state.

Rachel: One Thing at a Time
written by Union Member, May 21, 2011 12:48

Chances are greater of seeing an Ivory-Billed Woodpecker and a Black Swan in the same tree than a journalist acknowledging the many, many, positive nonfinancial benefits of unions, even to those who are nonmembers and their families! (i.e.EVERYBODY: which includes Oligarchs and their families!)

Meanwhile, the litany of obvious union shortcomings is frequently recited in the media, but not in an effort to understand their role or improve their performance but to stigmatize and weaken them.
Thank you Beat the Press

Anyone Can Make False Accusations: Read Ben Stein, Low-rated comment [Show]

Wrote a post about this post
written by fairleft, May 23, 2011 11:28

Great stuff as usual, Mr. Baker.

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/a-union-maid-reported-dominque-strauss-kahns-sexual-assault

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written by Jack, May 23, 2011 12:26

Is it permissable on this site to point out that a comment, like the one posted above by izzatzo, is the opinion of an idiot?

izzatzo
written by Jeff Z, May 23, 2011 4:15

Jack, of course it is permitted. If you look on it as satire, it may take on a different light.

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written by Jack, May 23, 2011 4:56

Sorry, but the satirical character of the comment didn't stand out, though after reading the Ben Stein comments, to which your comment alerted me, it then became a bit more apparent. Stein stands out, therefore, as the idiot. No subtlety intended. Granted that Strauss-Kahn should be fairly treated by the media which is more than is usually afforded to the female victims in such cases. However, Stein is over the top in regards his out roght grasping at straws in a speculative manner. Here is a particularly good critique of Ben's various inane points regarding the allegations against Strauss-Kahn; http://open.salon.com/blog/isa...ape_people

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written by Chris, May 24, 2011 11:10

"This meant the housekeeper knew that she could make a complaint to management and not worry about being ridiculed or putting her job at risk. This fact would have been worth mentioning in the article. '

Well, maybe not "putting her job at risk", assuming she had a union with some spine that would go to bat for her. If you've never been a union member, you might naively make that assumption. How the union would insulate her from embarrassment and ridicule is unclear to me.

A Union Maid Reported Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Sexual Assault

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