Alabama Woman on Inaugural Whistle Stop Tour
Lilly Ledbetter of Jacksonville has been selected as one of the "everyday Americans," who will get to participate in President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden's Whistle Stop tour to Washington, D.C. the Saturday before the inauguration.
If Ledbetter's name looks familiar, it should. She made headlines a few years back because of pay-equity suit she brought against the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. She's also testified several times before the U.S. Congress on pay-equity issues.
She was a former manager at the Gadsden-plant for almost 20 years, and found near the end of her career that she had been consistently paid much less than almost all of her male co-workers over the years.
Ledbetter sued Goodyear and won a jury verdict of more than $3 million. But in 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the verdict in 5-4 against Ledbetter saying that she had waited too long to bring her claim.
Her case led to passage in the U.S. House of Representatives of the bipartisan Lilly
Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007, which would have ensured that other victims of pay discrimination have more than 180 days after their first discriminatory paycheck to file a complaint. The bill, however, stalled in the U. S. Senate.
Ledbetter will be among 18 people who will participate in the Whistle Stop tour.
If Ledbetter's name looks familiar, it should. She made headlines a few years back because of pay-equity suit she brought against the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. She's also testified several times before the U.S. Congress on pay-equity issues.
She was a former manager at the Gadsden-plant for almost 20 years, and found near the end of her career that she had been consistently paid much less than almost all of her male co-workers over the years.
Ledbetter sued Goodyear and won a jury verdict of more than $3 million. But in 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the verdict in 5-4 against Ledbetter saying that she had waited too long to bring her claim.
Her case led to passage in the U.S. House of Representatives of the bipartisan Lilly
Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2007, which would have ensured that other victims of pay discrimination have more than 180 days after their first discriminatory paycheck to file a complaint. The bill, however, stalled in the U. S. Senate.
Ledbetter will be among 18 people who will participate in the Whistle Stop tour.
posted by Markeshia Ricks at
12:20 PM
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