Editorials

Once in a while an issue comes along that clearly defines the difference between political leaders who work on the behalf of people and those who do the bidding of big business.

The Senate had such an issue before it this week.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act grew out of a Supreme Court decision last year that ruled that workers wishing to file discrimination complaints had to do so within 180 days of the first paycheck received.

The act is named after the lady who brought the suit, a worker at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in Gadsden who had worked there since 1979. For all those years, Ledbetter discovered in 1989, her male counterparts had been making as much as 40 percent more per month than she had — for doing exactly the same work.

Ledbetter sued Goodyear for back pay, but the court ruled 5-4 that she wasn't entitled to compensation because she didn't file within 180 days of the first paycheck back in 1979.

Never mind the fact that Goodyear and just about every other company in the nation have policies not to share employee salary information with other employees.

Ledbetter only found out because someone tipped her off.

Last year, the U.S. House — without the help of our Rep. Mike Rogers — passed a measure to rewrite the workplace-discrimination law to loosen the statute of limitations and allow people like Lilly Ledbetter to get their deserved back pay.

This week it was the Senate's turn, but in an awesome display of corporate selfishness Republicans blocked the measure with a threatened filibuster.

Six Republicans joined Democrats in supporting workers. Forty-two members of the GOP, including Alabama Sens. Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions, threw their support behind big business.

The American people, workers and our sense of fairness, common sense and common decency all lost this week in the Senate. But the biggest loser of all may have been the GOP.

It is difficult to imagine how this could be a winning issue for Republicans in the fall campaign. It should be noted that Sen. John McCain did not vote on the measure, but he is on record as opposing it. Both Democratic candidates for president voted for it.

But the office of the president is not the only one facing voters in November. The entire House and a big chunk of the Senate will be up for re-election. Both chambers are currently controlled by the Democrats, but if this kind of slash-and-burn tactic employed against American workers continues, the Democrats might just grab a filibuster-proof majority.

Senate leaders tried to justify the vote against Ledbetter with a moldy argument about opening companies up to an avalanche of litigation. In fact, the measure before the Senate would have simply returned the law to how it had been interpreted for decades, before last year's unfortunate Supreme Court decision. During those years, there had not been an onslaught of litigation. There is no reason to expect it to come under the new law.

But these are the talking points of the GOP leadership. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Republican from Kentucky, was typically condescending, explaining to all the little people in the country why big business needs yet another big break.

He should go tell that to Lilly Ledbetter's face. Tell her that though she worked the same job, put in the same hours, worked just as hard and was just as qualified as her male counterparts, she is still worth 40 percent less.

That's the American way, at least as the GOP sees it.