The Illinois Attorney General, Kwame Raoul, is heading a coalition of 16 attorneys general in an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court. The aim of this coalition is to overturn a lower court's ruling stating that only employees of transport companies are exempt from the transportation-worker exemption to the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA).
The attorneys general are rallying behind the workers in the Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries case. The heart of the matter is whether or not 'private fleet' truck drivers and those in similar positions should be protected by the FAA's transportation worker exemption. This exemption lets workers avoid entering into private arbitration agreements with their employers if they work in transportation.
Raoul, in a statement, said, “We have seen the critical role all truck drivers play in keeping our states running efficiently, and there is no reason to treat some truck drivers differently than others based solely on their employer’s line of work,” His request to the Supreme Court is for their decision to be overturned in a bid to better protect our essential workers.
The lower court's decision was that drivers weren't eligible for the exemption because their employer wasn't directly within the transportation industry. Raoul's coalition instead urges the Supreme Court to remove this ruling, arguing that it directly contradicts the statute's text and creates an unfeasible split between truck drivers for transport companies and private fleets.
Aside from the legality, the brief also notes the wider implications for workers and state regulators. Open, public dispute resolution, as opposed to private arbitration, allows state regulators to keep tabs and react. Raoul argues that it’s important to ensure this, whether drivers are part of the transport industry or a private fleet.
This is not Raoul's first initiative of this nature. In 2022, he led a comparable coalition when they filed an amicus brief in the Southwest Airlines Co. v. Saxon case. According to an Illinois Attorney General's Office statement, the matter at hand was whether transportation workers loading and unloading interstate cargo were exempt from the FAA, with the court ultimately ruling in favor of the workers.
To boost labor protections, Attorney General Raoul has taken on repeated leading roles. Last year, he led attorneys general in backing the federal government’s actions to raise the minimum wage for select federal contractors. Raoul's persistence is visible in his 2020 lawsuits, which challenged Department of Labor rules affecting tipped worker protections and removed crucial Fair Labor Standards Act protections. Raoul continues to fight for workers’ rights under the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act and the Illinois Minimum Wage Law.
