The LGBT workers’ organization, Pride At Work has asked all unions to stop supporting the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). This weekend the organization approved a resolution that calls on member organizations to stop funding the HRC until the advocacy group addresses what Pride at Work sees as systemic issues and key problems with HRC’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI).
The Advocate reported that after what the LGBT labor organization contends have been months of unfruitful conversations with HRC staffers about the importance of valuing companies with strong union practices in HRC’s CEI, the nonprofit organization, which represents LGBT union members and their allies, overwhelmingly approved the resolution at its triennial convention, held in Orlando, Fla., from Aug. 26-29.
“Through this resolution, the members of Pride @ Work are demanding that enough is enough,” Shane Larson, co-president of Pride at Work and a member of Communication Workers of America, tells The Advocate. “Working people are under attack every day, and a war on their rights to come together and fight for a voice on the job is being waged by many of the corporations that HRC asks the LGBT community to celebrate.”
The resolution lays out a long list of issues that Pride At Work has with HRC, particularly with its CEI. The resolution states that “the CEI should paint an accurate and complete picture about companies’ policies and practices when it comes to LGBT equality, but has fallen woefully short of this standard.”
The resolution pulls out the example of Walmart, who received a 90 percent CEI score despite the fact that the retail chain’s policies were ruled unlawfully discriminatory in a case filed by a lesbian employee after Walmart refused to allow her to add her cancer-stricken wife to her company insurance plan.
Finally the resolution calls for “… all labor unions, labor federations, and labor-affiliated organizations to cease funding HRC at all levels until these matters are addressed in a manner that shows HRC stands in solidarity with all working Americans for a fair, just and equal society.”
Read the entire resolution below:
