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| Congress Examining Insurance
Issues With Jockeys’ Guild |
The CEO of the Jockeys’ Guild testified before Congress yesterday that in previous sworn testimony, he incorrectly stated that the guild’s board of directors made a decision to cancel a $1M insurance policy, according to SportsBusiness Journal’s Liz Mullen in a special to THE DAILY. Under questioning at a hearing before the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations, Wayne Gertmenian said that his previous answer under penalty of perjury that the Jockey Board cancelled insurance that covered the nation’s riders for racing accidents was not true. Earlier in the hearing Gary Birzer, a jockey who was paralyzed last year in a racing accident, said he never received any notice that the policy was cancelled. Meanwhile, Guild VP Albert Fiss, when asked if the organization had notified jockeys that the policy had lapsed said, “No, because it was our understanding, quite frankly, that the jockeys didn’t even know it existed.” Fiss also admitted that he told Birzer’s wife, Amy, that he wanted to use the paralyzed jockey as “a guinea pig” to further the guild’s political agenda. Fiss and Gertmenian were roundly criticized by members of the subcommittee. U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) questioned Fiss’ attempts to criticize previous guild management. Stupak: “You can sit here and blame former management but this happened on your watch” (
THE DAILY). Stupak said that the panel “would ask a federal agency to conduct a study of racetracks.” Stupak added that the results would be used to “create guidelines that [OSHA] ‘can use to hold those tracks responsible for correcting ... working conditions.’” Stupak said that a NLRB rule “keeping riders from organizing or bargaining collectively should be changed” (
COURIER-JOURNAL, 10/19).
