Activity Request and Update

Where Are We and Where Do We Go From Here?

While many, if not most, political pundits would project that the November 2nd vote lessened our chances of passage of HR3149 in Congress, we see it another way. It made numbers supporting the measure and passion from those numbers far more important. We’ve been out of touch with you for about a month while we’ve been monitoring events and the new political landscape.

It quickly became obvious that nothing was going to happen during the current lame duck session of Congress simply because the agenda was way too overcrowded, so we punted on outreach efforts to Congress and will pick that effort back up after the first of the year. In the meantime, we need you to recruit new members to our group. While we are far from being alone in our fight, our group numbers count for a variety of reasons such as: 1) quick mobilization without the internal political constraints of the many organizations on board for passage and 2) a true grass roots voice of common citizens untainted by some political party agenda. With that said, however, SIZE matters. We need tens of thousands of new members in order to speak with volume when the new Congress convenes in January.

Luckily we’ve been given a great new tool to use in both recruiting and advocacy. It is a series of four separate articles that we were privileged to consult upon. Written by Brenda Krueger Huffman, a new member to our group, who opened the door on a segment of Americans with ruined credit impacted by employment credit checks to long ignored. While much coverage has been focused on the minority and lower socioeconomic aspects of the issue, this is the first series we’re aware of that has highlighted the previous upper income tier of Americans of all races that are being impacted by employment credit checks.

While we have supported our membership in the minority community with outreach efforts specifically geared toward that segment of our membership, the opportunity to highlight a far larger segment of our membership has until now been difficult. With this series of articles, we intend to both reach and call out the previous upper income segment of Americans that have been hiding in the shadows in shame. If you fall into that category, you need to realize that you’ve done nothing for yourself and our cause by lurking in the shadows due to pride. With the Great Recession all stigma to a bad credit report have been removed, but until you make your voice heard, we’ll continue to struggle with passage of legislation to remove employment credit checks from the arsenal of workplace discrimination.

Toward that end, we’d like for all our group members to distribute the entire series of articles, beginning with first one linked below, in an effort to bring more members to our group and more importantly bring more people out of the shadows.

Please share the linked article as follows with every American you know:

http://axcessnews.com/index.php/articles/show/id/21264

Within at least two of the articles, if not all, Brenda has conveniently provided a link to to our FB group, but add it as well to all your verbiage in your recruiting efforts: with a “join our FB PAG at: http://groups.to/h.r.3149 in addition to providing our groups e-mail address at hr3149@hotmail.com with instructions for them to type ”sign me up” in the subject line in order to join our at large group outside of FB. We will shoot you a link to the second, third and fourth articles in the series as they become agailable. Now is the time to push hard to educate and recruit! To slightly paraphrase the words of John Paul Jones “we have just begun to fight!”

In other Employment Credit Check Discrimination News

The EEOC already has one suit under way in Baltimore in regard to employment credit checks and we’re monitoring that suit as it progresses through the courts. In addition, the EEOC recently held hearings in October in regard to employment credit checks and ALL indications are that they are taking the issue very seriously and many more suits will follow the one they have underway in Baltimore. Don't hesitate to make contact with the EEOC with even the hint of the issue employment credit checks being used against you.

Sue, Sue and Sue Some More!

Cases against the use of employment credit checks are gaining in both number and momentum all across the nation. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a related case this session and individuals across the nation are opening their own cases as well. The University of Miami is being sued and we’re awaiting word as to whether that case may give wind to a larger class action suit that we can join in so stay tuned. This could be a HUGE development!

Pay Attention to Your State

While at some point as many as 16 states have considered legislation, New Jersey, Ohio and the District of Columbia seem to be the hottest at the moment. While our limited time and resources preclude us heavily supporting legislation on a state by state basis, we will commit to act as a clearing house for amassing people to work within states and sharing general state based information on our group FB page.

Individually, we’d love to hear from all residents within North Carolina who would like to get involved with initiating a state push. If you’d like to get involved just let us know.

Just Keep Fighting!!!!

The key is to fight, fight, fight in every way, at ever level of government whether it is at the national level, the state level or in the court system. We will win this battle and every day, unfortunatly, the numbes of credit distressed Americans say we will win, but NOT if they continue to hide in the shadows. Stand up, be proud, be strong and fight like hell for your right to work free from workplace discrimination. We will not be starved by the profits and greed of the big three credit bureaus and the politicans they have bought off and bribed.