Unions Use NAFTA Rules to Sue for Freedom to Bargain

by James Parks, Oct 17, 2006

With the Republican-dominated National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) taking away workers’ rights rather than protecting them, workers continue to fight for their freedom to form unions on many fronts.

More than two dozen labor organizations in Mexico, the United States and Canada jointly filed a case against the United States under the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), the labor side agreement to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

The case charges that North Carolina and the United States are violating NAALC and international labor commitments by denying 650,000 public employees in the state the freedom to engage in collective bargaining.

The U.S. unions signing on to the complaint include the United Steelworkers (USW), Farm Labor Organizing Committee and three unaffiliated unions: UNITE HERE, the United Food and Commercial Workers and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers.

Citing a recent decision by the NLRB that could bar millions of workers from forming unions, USW attorney Dan Kovalik says:

We have to use all the routes available to protect workers’ rights. This suit follows on the heels of the nurses’ cases. Those and other decisions are whittling away the rights of workers. We need to be as creative as possible and think outside the box for ways to constantly bargain or we’re going to lose our rights.

North Carolina state employees have become increasingly frustrated with the lack of collective bargaining and an effective voice on the job. A month ago, sanitation workers in Raleigh staged a two-day strike to demand a voice on the job. NAALC requires the United States, Mexico and Canada to provide for “high labor standards” in their laws and lists freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining among its core principles. The rights also are required by the conventions of the U.N.’s International Labor Organization (ILO). The case claims North Carolina’s law prohibiting collective bargaining by state and local government employees violates international law.

Last year, the International Commission for Labor Rights, which investigates labor rights abuses around the world, reported that North Carolina’s refusal to allow public employees to form unions has created deplorable working conditions for state and municipal workers, including low wages and benefits, unsafe working conditions, understaffing and forced overtime, according to the complaint.

“All of these complaints could be addressed through the collective bargaining process. However, the prohibition of collective bargaining agreements in North Carolina has prevented public sector workers from experiencing the basic dignity associated with having a say in establishing one’s conditions of work, as well as the increased authority derived from speaking with a collective voice,” the complaint said.

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article |Comments (0)