Common Sense English Act

[Aidan Wilson]

To be fair, the bill only makes it not unlawful for an employer to 
require their employees to speak English while on the job. But all the 
same, I reckon it bites. Especially given the reasons they cite:

    (1) throughout the history of the United States, English has been
    the common thread to unify the American people much as they are
    united under one flag;

Isn't it the case that Spanish will be more populous that English in the 
US in about... 15 or so years?

    (2) Americans overwhelmingly believe that it is very important for
    people living in the United States to speak and understand English;

It does not follow that other languages are unimportant, or somehow 
deleterious.

    (3) there is vast support among the American people to allow a
    company to require its employees to speak English while on the job;

Really? I'd like to see that survey. In any case, we have elected 
representatives for a reason, if all policy was decided by referenda, 
we'd have zero taxes and no services.

    (4) in 2006, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC),
    against the will of the American people, filed more than 200
    lawsuits against employers who implemented `English in the
    Workplace' policies;

So in effect, all this would be doing is protecting those 200 employers? 
On the converse, legalising language requirements might allow many times 
more such abuses of equal employment rights to occur. Also, I wonder how 
they qualify 'against the will of the American people'.

    (5) the EEOC has sued the Salvation Army for implementing an
    `English in the Workplace' policy which gives employees a year to
    learn English;

English lessons for employees are good, but they are not synonymous with 
'no other language allowed'. This sentence is a little ambiguous anyway 
and I can't tell what's being inferred. Was it the Salvation Army's 
policy of providing English lessons that constituted a breach of equal 
rights? I doubt it. In which case, if someone made a complaint on such 
grounds then it probably provides the best evidence for this bill; 
protecting people who do the right thing by their employees from stupid 
charges like this. But I expect the courts would be able to take care of 
this, rather than swiftly legalising any such linguistic rights abuses.

    (6) when a group of employees speaks a language other than English
    in the workplace, it may cause misunderstandings, create dangerous
    circumstances, and undermine morale.

Not the problem of the other language or its speakers. If a group of 
employees chooses to exclude a monolingual English speaker from their 
own in-group, then they'd exclude them using any means at their 
disposal. It just so happens that language may be a particularly salient 
method, but it is not the cause of the circumstances or the morale.

That's it, the entire bill. Suffice to say I'm less than convinced.

Aidan Wilson
Audio at Paradisec

On 01/02/08 06:11, Melissa Pond said:
>
> Information about it can be found here: 
> http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-4464
>
>  
>
>
> *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
>
> Melissa Pond
> Director of Library Services
> Leech Lake Tribal College
> P. O. Box 180
> 6945 Little Wolf Rd. NW
> Cass Lake, MN 56633
> 218-335-4240
> 218-335-4282 (fax)
> melissa.pond at lltc.edu <mailto:melissa.pond at lltc.edu>
>
> "I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library." - 
> Jorge Luis Borges
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *From:* Indigenous Languages and Technology 
> [mailto:ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU] *On Behalf Of *rrlapier at AOL.COM
> *Sent:* Thursday, January 31, 2008 1:09 PM
> *To:* ILAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
> *Subject:* [ILAT] Common Sense English Act
>
>  
>
> What do people know about HR 4464? The Common Sense English Act that 
> will "require employees to speak English while engaged in work"?
>
> Rosalyn LaPier
>
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