Spanish-Speaking Workers Challenge English-Only Policy
November 27th, 2007 . by TexasFredFOX News - After a sheet metal plant in Connecticut ordered its employees to speak only English on the job because of safety concerns, five Spanish-speaking workers decided to take the company to court.
The employees, who are legal immigrants, say the rule amounts to discrimination and actually makes the workplace more hazardous.
“I can think of no good reason for them to institute this policy,” said Steven Jacobs, the lawyer for the workers who are suing GC Industries in Deep River, Conn. “It’s offensive to people who speak Spanish and is potentially dangerous. It inhibits them from communicating in their native tongue in situations that could put people at risk.”
According to the lawsuit, the plant’s “Common Language Policy” was suddenly posted in fliers on the factory bulletin board on March 15, 2006.
The notice stated that “there be one language spoken during working time at all plants and facilities of GCI, and that language is English.” It specified that the policy would be enforced when “any employee is ‘on the clock,’” and said violations could lead to warnings and dismissal.
Court documents show that the announcement, which was also posted in Spanish, was signed by company president Thomas Arbella.
Full Story Here:
Spanish-Speaking Workers Challenge English-Only Policy
“I can think of no good reason for them to institute this policy,”, well, I can, this is the United States of America, we speak English, it’s the language of the land, learn it, use it…
Certainly no one thinks that if an American went to Mexico to work that the Mexicans would approve of having to do business with that person in English would they?? When in Rome, and so forth and so on, if I do business in a foreign nation and I don’t speak the language I feel it is MY responsibility to LEARN their language, not the other way around, oh, but wait, I just blew that one all to hell and back, I used the word responsibility, and we all know that immigrants, the legal ones or the ILLEGAL ones, aren’t held responsible for not speaking or even attempting to learn English…
What in the world was I thinking??
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When I was in business I would not put up with any of this kind of bullshit. Granted I was small enough and financially secure enough to close shop any time I wanted to but I made damn sure that my employees understood it was my business and I made the rules and if they didn’t want to follow the rules they could take a fuckin’ hike to the unemployment line.
If ALL business would take this stand and tell labor to take what is offered are take a hike this country would be better off. And if every time government stuck its nose into the doors of business, business would just close the fucking doors it would not be long before there was no business and no jobs and no gotdam government trying to intervene in the affairs of business. Then maybe an honest business man could again earn a reasonable profit on capital investment. GOOD GOD GIRTY WHAT A GASH! And people wonder why American business is moving off shore…
To work for my company you must speak and write English, you must be a US Citizen and you must sign our Operations Manual. You must sigh each and every page of that Operations Manual. We don’t run our business, a system runs our business, we run the system and the system runs it’s self. Nothing is left for question, nothing.
When your on our property at any of our locations you speak English, you agreed to speaking English when you signed our Operations Manual, done deal.
We have had the Union approch our employees twice for a vote and both times our employees voted the Union down.
You nip this Shit in the butt at the beginning, not after you hire someone.
Ranando: if these fuckheads win, prepare to be sued yourselves.
BZ
BZ,
There’s a first time for everything, I’m not at all concerned. We have a contract with each and every employee.
I hate that word employees, we call everyone Team Members, Cast or Customer Service Representatives.
I certainly agee with this employers argument about the safety aspect of it, it’s called getting on the same sheet of music.
I can remember being in the Corps and having some Mexicans in my platoon, they’d start that crap in the field. I wasn’t going to give any orders in Spanish and told many on several occassions to stfu, this wasn’t the Mexican Army.. and you damn well better relay to the next guy what the f-k is going on in English. Safety issue too, BIG time.
A lot different than a sheetmetal plant but you get the point.
Safety and safety communication has to be #1. You can either be safe and stay in business or be unsafe and be closed down. This case is the government taking on itself with a small business as a pawn in the middle.
Occupational safety and health forces businesses to promote safety in the work place. Government mandates Workman’s Comp coverage for all employees. If the language barrier increases the risk of accidents then coverage will increase in cost and drive companies out of business.
This case is on a crash course with business in America and GNP. The proper attention and punctuation of this case will bring it to defeat. There is no other choice when the consequences are weighed.
I’ve had customers come in my store to make purchases. On occasion I’ve had a difficult time communicating with them as they obviously had a hard time speaking and understanding English. No problem, we have many Hispanic customers and deal with them as best as we can. But, when it’s time to check out, they show me their military ID card; we give a 10% military discount. These guys were Active Duty Air Force. If they can’t understand and speak clear English in a parts store, how are they going to interpret and complicated technical manuals and directives?
The US Armed Forces has always accepted foreign nationals but they’ve always been able to speak clear English and understand it. I’ve worked with and supervised many of them and they were outstanding troops as they really wanted to be there and loved this country.
We can’t say it’s a recruitment problem as the Air Force has an overage of people and are forcing some out.
This is a big issue with me as we go to many docks where the workers speak no English and I speak VERY little Spanish — and quite frankly refuse to learn. It is becoming more and more common, too.
It is a huge safety concern when working around large trucks, forklifts, etc…