Some bosses don't want to hear Spanish

Houston Chronicle ^ | JAMES PINKERTON

[Dubya]

LANGUAGE BARRIER Some bosses don't want to hear Spanish Lawsuits fuel debate over English-only rules at work

WHEN the captain heard three crew members on his container ship chatting in Spanish during breaks, he became enraged. He then brandished a knife to enforce his standing orders: Speak only English on board.

The incident, settled for $31,000 after a discrimination suit was filed in a Houston federal court, is an extreme example of cases fueling a growing debate over English-only policies in the workplace, experts say.

''It's a lightning-rod issue, a lot of people get upset," said Rudy Sustaita, a veteran attorney with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed suit against the Houston ship management firm that hired the captain.

And a similar suit earlier this year has sparked a showdown on Capital Hill, where Senate Republicans approved legislation to block the EEOC's efforts to dismantle English-only rules imposed by private companies.

The agency insists the few cases it brings challenge the most ''egregious" policies, where English is mandatory even though there is no legitimate business need to do so.

The English-only issue has been pulled into the divisive debate over immigration, and promises to be a pivotal issue in the 2008 elections.

Measures about English usage are not just popping up in the workplace. So far, 30 states have passed laws making English their official language and others are pending.

Debate boycott In Washington, activists are lobbying to make English the official language of government and end the printing of bilingual voting ballots.

''We're not against other languages, but we don't want to create an English-optional society, either," said Tim Schultz, director of governmental relations at U.S. English Inc., a conservative group at the forefront of the English-only movement.

Congressman Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, boycotted Sunday's presidential debate on the Spanish-language Univision network because he considered it ''pandering of the lowest order."

''I don't believe we should be encouraging the bilingualism of the United States," Tancredo said Friday.

Activists say requiring English in the workplace often is a contentious issue in Houston, where more than 90 languages can be heard among the large populations of immigrants who have settled here from around the world.

''It's fairly common in places of employment where the majority of the workers speak English," said Laura Boston, an organizer for the nonprofit Houston Interfaith Worker Justice Center. ''Employers will tell their employees they're not allowed to speak their own language."

Boston said requiring English is used as an ''annoyance tactic" with workers, and is ''just part of the abuse you sometimes get from some employers."

The EEOC says companies can require workers to speak English to communicate with customers, co-workers or supervisors who only speak English. English also may be required in the workplace to promote safety, aid in cooperative work assignments or allow supervisors to evaluate an employee whose duties include speaking with customers.

Salvation Army suit ''The cases we pursue are for what we call 'blanket policies,' " said David Grinberg, an agency spokesman in Washington, D.C., who cited suits involving workers who were not allowed to speak other languages in the lunchroom, during calls to family members or in the company parking lot.

The most recent controversy erupted in the wake of an EEOC suit against the Salvation Army in April, filed after the charitable organization fired two employees for speaking Spanish while they sorted clothing in a thrift shop in Massachusetts.

In June, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., sponsored a bill that passed the Senate, but not the House of Representatives, that would prevent the EEOC from enforcing rules against English-only in the workplace.

The EEOC has brought 29 English-only suits the last 11 years, according to agency records, while worker complaints have dropped from a high of 236 in 2002 to 125 last year, officials said.

''The bottom line is, the EEOC rarely files English-only litigation, and we don't receive that many allegations," Grinberg said. ''When we do file suit, once or twice a year, it's an egregious instance where there is no business necessity."

EEOC officials in Houston say there have been relatively few lawsuits filed over English in the workplace, since most companies resolve complaints outside of court.

''I've been the senior lawyer here for 19 years, and we've had less than half a dozen English-only language cases during that time," said James Sacher, the EEOC's regional attorney in the Houston office. ''It's hard to generalize, but often if there's a problem presented in a charge (complaint), there's a sensible, confidential resolution that occurs during our investigative process."

Crippling decision? Union officials say requiring the Houston workforce to speak English on the job would cripple the local construction industry.

''I don't know that any general contractor — union or not — would go so far as to have an English-only policy, because they wouldn't get the job built," said Dale Wortham, president of the AFL-CIO council in Harris County. ''That's because you're going to have at least 50 percent of your labor force that doesn't speak English."

james.pinkerton@chron.com

[FrdmLvr]

The incident, settled for $31,000 after a discrimination suit was filed in a Houston federal court, is an extreme example of cases fueling a growing debate over English-only policies in the workplace, experts say.

What???!!!!! The guy pulls a knife on them, and he's prosecuted not for that but for DISCRIMINATION?????

[VOA]

bump

[ßuddaßudd]

Let’s see, from my cube I can hear Chinese, Portuguese, Viet, Tagalog, Russian and sometimes Espanol. I guess it could be worse....

[april15Bendovr]

As a customer I don’t like hearing it. I would love nothing more than to see Spanish Americans assimilate and speak the Americas language which is English.

They can speak it Their traditional language at home and in their community just like other people did that assimilated into our melting pot. If they want to keep it and force it on others than they are making this country a tossed salad rather than a melting pot.

Nothing personal but I don’t find the Spanish language very attractive. For me its like going to a firing range and listening to a machine gun go off without ear protection.

[seoul62]

Problem where I am situated is that people have a hard time understanding me because I speak clear ENGLISH!!!!!!!! I think we are living in a parallel universe, one where the bizarro is the gaining norm./Just Asking - seoul62........

[puroresu]

Yeah, that pretty much describes America circa 2007. A parallel bizarro universe.

[King of Florida]

I speak Spanish. I have family that speak Spanish, some as their first language. (They are either U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents, thank you very much.)

It is natural for them to want to speak Spanish to other native Spanish speakers, just as it would be natural for us to speak English to another native English speaker, no matter how long both of us may have resided in a non-English speaking country whose language we have learned.

And also just as it was natural for immigrants in the first half of the twentieth century to speak Italian and Yiddish to each other, and for immigrants in the nineteenth century to speak German to each other.

The children of these immigrants will always speak English better than they speak their parents' native tongue, and the grandchildren of these immigrants will often not be able to speak a word of it.

It has and will always be the American way, as long as America is a place that welcomes (legal) immigrants from other countries.

[mtbopfuyn]

Some customers don't either.

It totally ticks me off when I call a company and have to pick #1 for Spanish and #2 for English.