Few democratic societies, other than our own,
condone open employer opposition
to attempts to unionize…

James A. Gross
Editor

Workers' Rights
as Human Rights

on Off the Page

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in RealAudio© format
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Tuesday, October 19
Live at 1, repeating at 7, on WSKG Radio

Suppression of trade union activities in the third world is often extreme, to say the least: it's all too common for organizers to experience physical violence, including murder. And while workers in the United States no longer face such extreme consequences for organizing activity, in many respects they don't enjoy the protection of international covenants that apply at least in theory in much of the rest of the world.

On the next edition of “Off the Page,” Tom Milligan's guest will be Dr. James A. Gross of the Industrial and Labor Relations School at Cornell University, who's edited and contributed to a wide-ranging assessment of workers rights. The program will be broadcast Tuesday, October 19, live at 1 pm with listener calls and email, repeating at 7 pm.

Workers' Rights as Human Rights explores the connection between what we commonly think of as political rights more often noted in the context of repression by government, and economic rights, supposedly guaranteed through international agreements, yet often given short shrift even in the United States.

International labor law recognizes four “core” rights: freedom of association and protection of the right to organize; freedom from forced labor; equal pay for work of equal value, and freedom from child labor.

But International labor law asserts itself into “larger questions of social policy” through the International Labour Organization, which administers an exhaustive and complex system of “conventions” and other international agreements, calling on governments to pursue an active policy promoting full, productive and freely chosen employment, a system of minimum wages, a maximum work week of 48 hours/ 8 in a day, and workplace health and safety issues, including compensation for injury due to occupational accidents and diseases--among many other interests. The US is a signatory to many, though not all, of these international agreements.

And though the United States is not among the worst violators of these international conventions, our own system of labor law operates largely “outside the context” of international law, and is constantly in flux.

For example, “worker's freedom of association is under sustained attack in the United States,” according to the author of one chapter, “and the government is failing in its responsibility under international human rights standards to deter such attacks and protect workers' rights.”

The Industrial Labor Relations Act, passed in 1938, established in law the notion that the Federal Government should be on the side of workers seeking to organize. It was born of conditions common in the Great Depression, in which employers had literally all the power in the workplace relationship. But beginning just a decade later with the passage of the Taft Hartley act, Federal law began to back away from that position. Some experts contend it's been backing away ever since, with serious ramifications for society as a whole.

Workers' Rights as Human Rights is a valuable survey of the state of the workplace relationship, articulating its remaining strengths and its weaknesses, and suggesting a path toward a more democratic and stable society.

Listen to the program now
in RealAudio© format
(requires free RealAudio© player)