good afternoon everyone good afternoon please have a seat good afternoon
president joe biden members of congress and my fellow americans today we are gathered to
celebrate the passage of a law that will make our nation's workplaces more safe and more just forced
arbitration silences survivors of sexual assault and harassment it shields predators instead of
holding them accountable and gives corporations a powerful tool to hide abuse and misconduct
and it compels the people of our nation and most often the women of our nation to sign away one
of their most fundamental rights the right to seek justice in court the legislation the
president will sign today will end forced arbitration in all cases of sexual abuse
and and almost equally as important it will apply retroactively
invalidating every one of these agreements no matter when they
were entered into and as many of you know it has been a long road to get to today
i co-sponsored this legislation five years ago when i was a senator and we would not have reached
this very moment were it not for a bipartisan group of legislators many of whom are here today
these leaders they saw clearly this is not a partisan issue this is not about republicans
or democrats this is about right and wrong as i think about the future
our administration will work with congress on broader forced arbitration legislation
and we will do that to also protect the rights of workers
in cases of wage theft racial discrimination and unfair labor practices
so i will conclude today by thanking all of the people who are here
and all that you represent to make this day possible and in particular
all the survivors and their allies who spoke out and demanded change
thank you for your courage and your resilience and for your leadership and now i will welcome
to the podium a woman who was instrumental in the passage of this law gretchen carlson
hi everyone i'm gretchen carlson it's such an honor for me to be here today a culmination of a
five-year journey of hard work and perseverance an historic day that proves that both parties
can come together to get something good done i can't think of a better way to kick off women's
history month than by signing a bill that will make the workplace safer for millions of women
heartfelt gratitude to president biden vice president harris senators gillibrand graham
grassley durbin representatives bustos griffith majority leader hoyer jayapal nadler buck and to
so many others and to all of your staffers some of whom i see here today i know how hard you worked
and today i'm here on behalf of the millions of american workers who up until today have been
voiceless silenced for simply having the courage to come forward to say something
bad happened at work and in return they got shunted into the secret chamber of arbitration
i could have never imagined that five years ago after filing my harassment lawsuit against
chairman and ceo of fox news roger ailes that this day of real change could actually come
back then a dear friend of mine said to me you know gretchen something good
is going to come of this and at the time i didn't quite believe her but you know what
she was right something great has come from my decision to come forward and stand alongside
millions of others to say that it's not okay for companies to hide harassment and assault
a lot of good has come from walking the halls of congress for the last five years
to see both sides of the aisle and try to encourage them to do what's right
a lot of good will come from this law change that will allow survivors in all sectors to be able
to have a choice and i also believe that this law will have a dual effect it's going to help
companies get on the right side of history and be more transparent but i believe it's also going to
stop the bad behavior because now everyone will know that women's voices can be heard
so what i found out is that marching in the streets can inspire hashtags
can galvanize but legislation is the only action that lasts
on behalf of all american workers i'm grateful to president biden for making
this crucial legislation the law of the land today and i look forward to my non-profit
lift our voices to continue fighting as the vice president said for other disenfranchised groups
in the workplace so they can also seek justice i often say that i did all of this for my children
and nothing would have been complete without them here today kaya and christian thank you for your
bravery and for allowing your mom to transfer my contagious courage to you and to my husband
casey i know we never planned on this but thank you for your support
and now it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you the president of the united states
well gretchen thank you and are they your two children stand up so everybody can see you
who's that guy in front of you is that dad just remember moms you get along with you
can work it out but dads are hard to raise be patient well look gretchen thank you very much
you know uh it went from speaking to millions to speaking for millions and speaking for a movement
it reminds us that even a powerful job didn't protect you from having to content you're over
this side i'm sorry for having to contend with so much you had to face and to all
the other courageous survivors there's four here today would you all stand up
you're the survivors who led to this historic reform and thank you thank you thank you on
behalf of my daughter my granddaughters all my all my family thank you so very much between
half and three quarters of all women report that they have faced some form of sexual harassment
in the workplace and too often they're denied a voice and a fair chance to do anything about it
today we send a clear and strong message that we stand with you for safety dignity and for justice
and this my state of the union i said i disagreed with the notion that we can't work together on
important things last year i signed 80 bipartisan bills in the law from preventing government
shutdowns to reforming the military justice system as kristin knows very well on a whole range of
issues relating to how women are treated today i'm proud to sign another bipartisan bill on the law
and i want to thank the many champions of this bill the vice president represented an old friend
sherry bustos good to see you sherry and uh ken buck morgan griffith uh uh pamela jayapal where
are you where is she there you are good to see you and senators kristen gillibrand and lindsey graham
by the way lindsay used to be a really close friend i'm going to work on it again
and dick durbin and i'm leaving all so many people out but look for the folks at home here's what
this law is going to do time and again women and sometimes men are forced and faced sexual
harassment and and assault on the job and it took that courageous step to reporting when it happened
and some of them when they did they found out the reporting harassment behavior
triggered a part of an employment contract they'd had never seen they didn't know existed that
they were powerless to change a mechanism called forced arbitration forced arbitration is in court
in fact forced arbitration prevents survivors from going to court and under forced arbitration
proceedings are conducted in secret often by arbitrators selected and paid for by the employer
and the outcomes of the arbitration are usually hidden from the public and the employees and
co-workers and they usually can't even uh and they can't be appealed or can't be overturned
in some arbitration clauses you can't even acknowledge that you're bringing the claim
and parenthetically employees can still forbid can still forbid employers can still forbid people
from talking about what happened to them through non-disclosure causes
and i think that should be changed as well but that's another day
when it comes to sexual harassment and assault a forced arbitration shielded perpetrators silenced
survivors enabled employers to sweep episodes of sexual assault and harassment under the rug and
it kept survivors from knowing if others have experienced the same thing
in the same workplace at the hands of the same person
and yes there will be cases where victims want their claims resolved in private but some
survivors will want their day in court and that should be their choice and nobody else's choice
i know there's discussion in congress about whether forced arbitration clauses
should also be banned for other kinds of employment disputes beyond sexual
harassment assault i think it's all wrong and they should be banned they've done cover here
giving the employer absolute power to decide isn't how justice is supposed to work
it should be the choice of the employee about whether they want to go to court or not
i've made clear that my belief that is no worker should have to make a commitment before
any dispute has arisen to give their their up their access to justice in the courts
when their rights when they believe it right has been violated 60 million american workers are
bound by forced arbitration clauses that were included in the fine print of their contracts
and many don't even know they exist you might have signed one without knowing it
i strongly believe no worker should have to make such a commitment that's why i support legislation
and the house of representatives is going to consider come in the coming weeks that
would prohibit mandatory arbitration of all types of employment but look
but today marks an important step in an effort to ban mandatory pre-dispute arbitration clauses
that takes the power to choose how to pursue justice away from the worker
i'm glad that there was a broad bipartisan support and unanimity in the united states senate that we
should never be forced and there should never be a forced arbitration clause for sexual harassment
and or assault folks this is i think a momentous day for justice and fairness in the workplace
and for those who experience sexual harassment or assault you're going to have the right today that
you did not have yesterday and that's good news and by the way i'd also argue that it was also
good for the employers as you mentioned i think it is good for the employers if a worker experiences
sexual assault or harassment it's in uh it's it's in the employer's best interest to address it many
times an employer may not know and to make sure it never happens again employers can't successfully
compete for the best workers if the workplace practices are unsafe and unjust employers can put
you on the right side of the workers as gretchen said to put you on the right side of history
and so on behalf of the workers of today on behalf of my daughter and behalf of my granddaughters and
grandchildren and with gratitude for the bravery of so many women who by speaking out have made
the workplace fairer and safer for others i'm now going to step over here and sign this bill and by
the way it's my hope that with the support of all the members of congress here i look
forward to sign legislation to strengthen and renew the violence against women act
which i which i first wrote and championed three decades ago so folks it's time to get
that passed too ladies and gentlemen i'm going to walk over and sign this
legislation and then wait up
congratulations
usually you have a pen for everybody i promise you're all going to get one all right
and um
okay make yourself comfortable everybody
you