CPR's May 8, 2019, webinar featuring CPR's Katie Tracy, Joe Santarella of Santarella & Eckert, LLC, and Mike Schade, Director of the Mind the Store Campaign of Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families.

Arbitration requires people to go through a private dispute resolution process, is often biased against workers and consumers, and typically slams the courthouse doors on those who are injured or harmed in the workplace. It's a standard condition in most, if not all, non-union employment and consumer contracts, and it's considered “forced” because few consumers or workers are aware that they are agreeing to mandatory arbitration when they sign such contracts. This requires them to resolve many types of alleged violations of state and federal laws through arbitration, including laws passed to protect against harmful and dangerous products, consumer fraud, employment discrimination, and other forms of wrongdoing. In our Feb. 15 webinar, co-hosted with the Workers' Rights Institute at Georgetown University Law Center, experts discussed how workers and historically marginalized communities are adversely impacted by forced arbitration. The Center for Progressive Reform's recent report on the topic served as a springboard for the discussion.