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DECEMBER 2003
Human Rights Violations Can Happen Here, Too
by Rick S. Bender, President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO

Imagine a place where you were spied on just for speaking your mind.  Imagine a place where you were forced to attend meetings promoting ideas you disagreed with and where you didn’t have the freedom to speak up.  Imagine a place where your were fired for just signing your name.

Does this sound like a foreign country where human rights aren’t respected?

Sadly, such outrages happen here, in our country, in our state and our communities where we believe freedom and human rights are fundamental.  It happens routinely when workers try to form a union.  In fact, half of all U.S. workers say they would form a union tomorrow to win fair treatment and a voice on the job. But they fear retribution. Forty-two million Americans say they want a union, but can’t have one. Imagine that!

December 10th is International Human Rights Day. That’s why organized labor here in our state and across the country is marking the day with rallies, meetings and other events to reveal this sad state of affairs. On Dec. 10, 1948, the U.S. joined 80 percent of  the members of the United Nations to promulgate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that specifically states that the freedom to form a union is one of the basic human rights to be protected, along with the freedom of speech, assembly and religion.

A recent Human Rights Watch report found that the U.S. is in violation: “Legal obstacles tilt the playing field so steeply against workers’ freedom of association that the United States is in violation of international human rights standards for workers.” Last month, historic legislation called the Employee Free Choice Act was introduced in Congress to reform our country’s ineffective labor laws.

The National Labor Relations Board reports 20,000 cases every year of violations against workers who just want to join a union. According to research by Cornell University scholar Dr. Kate Bronfenbrenner, in 75 percent of union organizing efforts, employers intimidate workers by holding one-on-one meetings to privately threaten them. She found that in nearly all cases, employers require all workers to attend aggressive anti-union meetings. A climate of fear and intimidation is the norm. It is also un-American.

Does that really happen here? Yes!  A local Catholic hospital with a mission of “respect and compassion,” hired a union busting firm to frighten workers into voting against the union. Seafood processing ship workers were charged with “mutiny” for protesting an increase to a 16-hour workday. One local worker who was active in an organizing effort was fired for having “wet hair.”  The cases go on and on.

Americans guard their freedoms with strength and conviction. But Americans are not aware of the routine violation of human rights that happen every day in our nation’s workplaces. When workers are harassed, intimidated, coerced and even fired for simply trying to exercise their basic rights, something is wrong.

We need to restore our rights as American workers. Let’s celebrate International Human Rights Day on December 10th and let’s be vigilant in protecting human rights here at home, too.

Rick Bender is President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO,
the largest labor organization in the state.

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Copyright © 2003  Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO