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Human Rights in Labor and Employment Relations: International and Domestic Perspectives Cornell University ILR School DigitalCommons@ILR Book Samples ILR Press 2009 Human Rights in Labor and Employment Relations: International and Domestic Perspectives James A. Gross (Ed.) Cornell University Lance Compa (Ed.) Cornell University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/books Thank you for downloading an article from DigitalCommons@ILR. Support this valuable resource today! This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the ILR Press at DigitalCommons@ILR. It has been accepted for inclusion in Book Samples by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@ILR. For more information, please contact [email protected]. If you have a disability and are having trouble accessing information on this website or need materials in an alternate format, contact [email protected] for assistance. Human Rights in Labor and Employment Relations: International and Domestic Perspectives Abstract [Excerpt] This volume is intended to collect the best current scholarship in the new and growing field of labor rights and human rights. We hope it will serve as a resource for researchers and practitioners as well as for teachers and students in university-level labor and human rights courses. The animating idea for the volume is the proposition that workers' rights are human rights. But we recognize that this must be more than a slogan. Promoting labor rights as human rights requires drawing on theoretical work in labor studies and in human rights scholarship and developing closely reasoned arguments based on what is happening in the real world. Citing labor clauses in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is one thing; relating them to the real world where workers seek to exercise their rights is something else. The contributors to this volume provide a firm theoretical foundation grounded in the reality of labor activism and advocacy in a market-driven global economy. Keywords human rights, labor rights, labor movement, union, organization, public policy Comments The abstract, table of contents, and first twenty-five pages are published with permission from the Cornell University Press. For ordering information, please visit the Cornell University Press. This article is available at DigitalCommons@ILR: https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/books/52 LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS ASSOCIATION SERIES ilr Human Rights LIBRARY in Labor and Employment Relations: International and Domestic Perspectives Martin P. Catherwood Library School of Industrial and Labor Relations EDITED BY James A. Gross and Lance Compa CONTENT Human Rights in Labor and Employment Relations: International and Domestic Perspec­ tives. Copyright © 2009 by the Labor and Employment Relations Association. Printed in the United States of America. All Rights Reserved. No part of the book may be used with­ out written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles Chapter 1—Introduction and reviews. Tames A. Gross and Lance Compa First Edition Chapter 2—Takin' It to the Man: Human R ISBN 978-0-913447-98-7 American Workplace Price: $24.95 James A. Gross Chapter 3 A New Frontier for Industrial! Workplace Health and Safety a JeffHilgert LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS ASSOCIATION SERIES Chapter 4—Child Labor in Human Rights Proceedings of the Annual Meeting (published electronically beginning in 2009) and Policy Perspective Annual Research Volume LERA 2006 Membership Directory (published every four years) Bums H. Weston LERA Newsletter (published quarterly) Perspectives on Work (published twice a year in June and December) Chapter 5—Workers' Freedom of Associat Tonia Novitz Information regarding membership, subscriptions, meetings, publications, and general Chapter 6—Prosecute, Prevent, Protect: N affairs of the LERA can be found at the Association website at www.lera.illinois.edu. Labor, and Human Rights . Members can make changes to their member records, including contact information, affili­ Rebecca Smith ations and preferences, by accessing the online directory at the website or by contacting the LERA national office. Chapter 7—Human Rights and Sustainabi Cover photo: Children making firecrackers. Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu, India. Photographer. A Corporate Perspective D.Brown. ©ILO Edward E. Potter and Marika McCau Chapter 8—Employment Discrimination LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS ASSOCIATION Maria L. Ontiveros University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Labor and Employment Relations Chapter 9—The Human Rights of Worke 121 Labor and Industrial Relations Building 504 East Armory Ave. Susanne M. Bruyere and Barbara Mu Champaign, IL 61820 Telephone: 217/333-0072 Fax: 217/265-5130 Internet: www.lera.iUinois.edu E-mail: [email protected] About the Contributors CONTENTS itions: Internationa] and Domestic Perspec- iployment Relations Association. Printed in ved. No part of the hook may he used with- rief quotations embodied in critical articles Chapter 1—Introduction 1 James A. Gross and Lance Compa ition Chapter 2—Takin' It to the Man: Human Rights at the 13447-98- American Workplace 13 14.95 James A. Gross Chapter 3—A New Frontier for Industrial Relations: Workplace Health and Safety as a Human Right 43 Jeff Hilgert ASSOCIATION SERIES Chapter 4—Child Labor in Human Rights Law hed electronically beginning in 2009) and Policy Perspective 73 Burns H. Weston bed every four years) Chapter 5—Workers' Freedom of Association 123 ar in June and December) Tonia Novitz ions, meetings, publications, and general Chapter 6—Prosecute, Prevent, Protect: Migrant Labor, Forced ociation website at www.lera.illinois.edu. Labor, and Human Rights 155 •cords, including contact information, affili- • directory' at the website or by contacting Rebecca Smith Chapter 7—Human Rights and Sustainability: vakasi, Tamil Nadu, India. Photographer: A Corporate Perspective 181 Edward E. Potter and Marika McCauley Sine Chapter 8—Employment Discrimination 195 ELATIONS ASSOCIATION Maria L. Ontiveros Jrbana-Champaign ployment Relations Relations Building Chapter 9—The Human Rights of Workers with Disabilities 213 ory Ave. Susanne M. Bruyere and Barbara Murray L 61820 Fax: 217/265-5130 E-mail: [email protected] About the Contributors 235 CHAPTER 1 Introduction JAMES A. GROSS LANCE COMPA Cornell University This volume is intended to collect the best current scholarship in the new and growing field of labor rights and human rights. We hope it will serve as a resource for researchers and practitioners as well as for teachers and students in university-level labor and human rights courses. The animating idea for the volume is the proposition that workers' rights are human rights. But we recognize that this must be more than a slogan. Promoting labor rights as human rights requires drawing on theoretical work in labor studies and in human rights scholarship and developing closely reasoned arguments based on what is happening in the real world. Citing labor clauses in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is one thing; relating them to the real world where workers seek to exercise their rights is something else. The contributors to this volume provide a firm theoretical foundation grounded in the reality of labor activism and advocacy in a market-driven global economy. Separate Tracks For most of the half-century after the Second World War, labor rights and labor standards were strictly a matter of national law and practice. Small groups of specialists in each country knew of the International Labour Organization and the dozens of "conventions" adopted since the ILOs founding in 1919. ILO conventions are meant to fashion common international labor standards around the world. ILO norms are nonbind- ing unless and until they are ratified and incorporated into national law, but they set out a marker of international consensus on workers' rights. In many countries, however—and especially in the United States—ILO standards traditionally have had little weight or relevance. In similar fashion, labor advocates have rarely, if ever, looked to international human rights norms in their promotion of workers' rights. The "international bill of rights," consisting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and 1 2 HUMAN RIGHTS INTRODUCTION Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, In one notable case filed under NAFT/ Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), contains many labor-related Human Rights Watch and allied labor an clauses. They cover freedom of association, organizing, and bargaining; Mexico challenged the widespread practi prohibitions on forced labor and child labor; nondiscrimination and U.S.-based multinational firms in the ma health and safety in the workplace; decent wages and benefits; and other U.S.-Mexico border. Nothing in the NAFT labor subjects. But trade unionists and their allies did not make the con­ trinational commission to order and enforce nection between international labor standards and their struggles in verdict in the court of public opinion, gem national settings. Human rights were disconnected from labor concerns the joint advocacy campaign by America] and labor discourse. alliances, put a stop to the practice in mai During this same period, from the end of World War II to the 1990s, U.S. companies. the human rights community hardly ever took workers' rights into its Another signal of a labor-human rigl field of vision and activism. Human rights activists focused—with good other initiatives by Human Rights
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