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Report Cites ‘Worsening’ U.S. Record on Workers’ Rights |
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The United States has a “poor and worsening record” on worker protections, especially when it comes to child labor and the freedom to join unions, according to a new report. In its biannual report on core labor standards in the United States, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) says U.S. laws exclude large groups of workers from the right to form unions, including agricultural workers, many public-sector workers, domestic workers, supervisors and independent contractors.
Says ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder:
The U.S. administration, rather than leading the way on protection of the rights of working people and on decent pay and conditions, has been intent on denying the freedom to join a union and bargain collectively to millions of American workers. This hurts America’s working people and has a negative impact on workers’ rights in other countries as well.
Most private-sector workers forming trade unions in the United States face extreme pressure from employers and a huge union-busting industry that aims at undermining trade union organizing, the ITUC says. Some 82 percent of employers hire such companies. Employers also force employees to listen to anti-union propaganda and threaten workers with company closures if they vote to form a union.
At the same time, the ITUC notes, the Bush Labor Department is cutting back on enforcement, spending an average of only $26 per employer, while spending on oversight of trade union activities amounts to an average of $2,500 per local union.
The report calls attention to the need for the Employee Free Choice Act, pointing out that it would “redress some of the imbalances workers are subject to.” The U.S. union movement has made passage of the bill a major issue in this year’s political campaign.
In its report, the ITUC says child labor and forced labor remain problems, particularly in agriculture. Mainly, Latino immigrant farm workers, adults and children, are forced to work long hours in harsh, dangerous conditions. Yet they are denied the freedom other workers have to better their lives by unscrupulous employers and lax enforcement of labor rules, the ITUC says.
The ITUC represents 168 million workers in 155 countries and territories and has 311 national affiliates, including the AFL-CIO and many affiliated unions.
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Even if federal labor laws are enforced, the punishment is, for the most part, ineffective. Posting a letter that outlines the infraction, for instance, doesn’t hurt an employer who may already have a number of letters! How does it help the workers? Do they even know what those letters mean? If you’ve been fired for union activities, you’ll never see it.
What our federal labor laws need is updated fines, and meaningful restitution to workers, when they have been wronged. If a company is going to spend half a million dollars or more to hire a union avoidance firm, they should be paying fines that reflect that amount.
The world has greatly changed over the past seventy plus years—it is time to overhaul our federal labor laws. We can start by urging our elected officials to support and pass the Employee Free Choice Act!
President Bush has tried to ruin the reputation of American production be defaming the American workers who built this nation. The American workers are the first ones in battle during a war but yet recieve no recognition from the present adminstration. He has ruined the Republican Party.
It is sad to see Bush pressing for an FTA with Colombia, a corrupt country that has absolutely no regard for the rights of workers. Ahh, but it does have one of the more unequal distributions of wealth in the world - A Bush dream world.