Human Rights Watch: Bahrain Illegally Fired 2,000 Workers
More than 2,000 workers in Bahrain have been dismissed from their jobs since late March, apparently for participating in or supporting pro-democracy demonstrations, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
The labor movement in Bahrain has asserted that the dismissals have violated Bahraini labor laws. Human Rights Watch adds the dismissals may also violate international standards, in particular those banning discrimination on the basis of political opinion. HRW called on Bahrain’s government to reinstate and compensate the workers if an investigation finds they were illegally fired.
Report: European Multinationals Violate Labor Standards In U.S.
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A new report shows that many European-based multinationals follow international labor standards in their home country, but do a 180 when they deal with workers in their U.S. subsidiaries.
The title of the report, “A Strange Case,” is based on the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr, Hyde,” said the report’s author Lance Compa, senior lecturer at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. The European multinationals, like the Stevenson character, have two distinct personalities, Compa says. In Europe, where there are strong unions and tough labor laws that are vigorously enforced, the companies have no choice but to treat their workers with respect and abide by international standards.
Labor Day 2010: Workers’ Rights Here and Around the Globe
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Corporations that lead the way in creating fair working environments prosper—but too many employers and governments around the world are abusing workers’ rights, according to the findings of several reports released in time for Labor Day. You can check out all the reports on our Labor Day 2010 webpage here.
- “Labor Day List: Partnerships that Work,” by American Rights at Work, profiles eight companies that promote positive labor-management relationships in the clean energy industry. The companies and union employees featured in the report are leading the way toward a sustainable economy in which businesses thrive, the planet prospers and workers share in the success they help create.
21st Century and Some Child Labor Still Legal in U.S.
Did you know it’s legal for kids as young as 12 and sometimes younger to pick food on U.S. commercial farms? According to a new report by Human Rights Watch, hundreds of thousands of children are employed as farm workers and they often work 10 or more hours a day with sharp tools, heavy machinery and dangerous pesticides.
One-third of all child farm workers don’t graduate from high school, reports “Fields of Peril: Child Labor in U.S. Agriculture.” And many risk their health and their lives. From 2005 to 2008, at least 43 children under age 18 died from work-related injuries in crop production—27 percent of all children who were fatally injured at work. The risk of fatal injuries for agricultural workers ages 15 to 17 is more than four times that of other young workers. Deadly pesticides are sprayed even as they work in the fields. As Hector H., an 18-year-old farm laborer who works alongside children, describes it:
You can smell them. [Recently] the plane sprayed, sprayed the cotton….I felt dizzy. I covered my face and kept working. No one told us to get out of the field.
Employee Free Choice: A Positive Change for U.S. Labor Law
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The Employee Free Choice Act, introduced in the U.S. House and Senate on Tuesday, would represent a critical change to the nation’s labor law. It’s a serious reform that would repair a broken system that is badly tilted away from workers.
Yesterday at the National Press Club, experts on the process got a chance to discuss what the Employee Free Choice Act would mean for workers, for management and for the economy, in a discussion hosted by the American Constitution Society (ACS). The panelists included Julie Martinez Ortega, research director of American Rights at Work; Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic Policy Research; management lawyer Willis Goldsmith; and Carol Piel, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch.
Martinez Ortega put the case for passing the Employee Free Choice Act this way:
This is ultimately about what individual workers want to do to improve their workplace. If we can’t give people the tools to do that, there’s a problem.
Human Rights Watch: Employee Free Choice Is a Human Right
Under current labor law, the United States is strikingly deficient in protecting freedom of association and the freedom to form unions, says a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), an independent human-rights advocacy group. The solution? Congress must pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
In a new report, The Employee Free Choice Act: A Human Rights Imperative, HRW lays out the case for its quick passage to restore workers’ freedom to form unions without fear of harassment, coercion or termination. The report is part of HRW’s critical work as watchdogs for human rights, the freedom of association and the treatment of workers from Colombia to India and around the world.
The report analyzes international labor standards the United States has agreed to by treaty, points out where it’s deficient in meeting those standards and explains how the Employee Free Choice will remedy the situation and restore workers’ fundamental freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life.
Human Rights Watch Confirms Colombia Not Ready for Trade Deal with U.S.
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Despite the Bush administration’s repeated attempts to push through Congress a U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) this year, the reality is that Colombia has not stemmed the violence against trade unionists or brought those responsible to justice.
In short, Colombia has a long way to go before a free trade pact should be considered.
The head of Human Rights Watch recently wrote three top House leaders urging them to remain steadfast in insisting that Colombia clean up its act before approving any new trade deal. In the letter, Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth says:
Free trade should be premised on fundamental respect for human rights, especially the rights of the workers producing the goods to be traded. In Colombia, workers cannot exercise their rights without fear of being threatened or killed.
