On the Convergence of Labour Rights and Human Rights Unfair Advantage: Workers’ Freedom of Association in the United States under International Human Rights Standards New York: Human Rights Watch, 2000, ISBN 1–56432–251–3 www.hrv.org/reports/2000/uslabor/ Your Voice at Work: Global Report under the Follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Geneva: International Labour Office, 2000 www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/decl/vaw/

During the past decade a strong international consensus has emerged that holds that a set of core labour rights should be regarded as fundamental human rights. The consensus developed in the context of a worldwide debate over globalization and the rules under which that process is to develop in the new millennium. An effective set of trade rules came into existence in 1995 when the World Trade Organization was established. Those rules attracted much criticism from a multinational coalition of labour, human rights and environmental organizations who the media has come to refer to as Civil Society. In response to this criticism, the established powers re-affirmed support (at the level of rhetoric at least) for a set of social standards that include freedom of association, recognition of the right to bargain collectively, and the elimination of forced labour, child labour and discrimination in employment. Organizations joining the consensus include the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, and the International Labour Organization. The human rights character of core labour rights was also re-affirmed in the concluding documents of the World Summit on Human Rights and the World Summit on Social Development. Employer organizations joining the consensus include the International Organization of Employers and the International Chamber of Commerce. The background to this consensus is briefly reviewed in Unfair Advantage: Workers’ Freedom of Association in the United States under International Human Rights Standards whose major purpose is to consider, from a human rights perspective, the state of freedom of association in the United States. Broader implications of the consensus are considered in Your Voice at Work. Probably the keystone document of the new international workers’ human rights consensus is the ILO’s 1998 Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. In that Declaration, members of the tripartite (labour, business and government) ILO pledged to “respect, to promote and to realize in good faith” the five core labour rights mentioned above. Your Voice at Work is part of the follow-up to that declaration. The short conclusion of Unfair Advantage is that freedom of association exists on paper in the US but reality on the ground falls far short of the law’s promise. Instead, workers are systematically denied their right to organize due to premeditated illegal behaviour by employers and the inadequacies of US enforcement, which “falls far short of its goals.” Commonly workers who “try to form and join trade unions to bargain with their employers are spied on, harassed, pressured, threatened, suspended, fired, deported or otherwise victimized in reprisal for their exercise of the right to freedom of association.” To North American industrial relations academics this finding is hardly news. The inadequacies of US law and practice have been extensively documented over the years and Unfair Advantage adds to that documentation. The main empirical part of the project, which forms the basis of the book, is a set of case studies. One very interesting aspect of the cases is that they focus on the most vulnerable of workers in the United States—those with few skills and little education. HRW was particularly interested in immigrants, both legal and illegal. The HRW researchers found that these workers were often systematically exploited. For example, South Florida is dotted with nursing homes. Certified nursing assistants (CNAs), many of whom are women immigrants, are the largest group of workers employed by those homes. Most CNAs are paid the minimum wage and receive very few benefits. Their work is the third most hazardous in the US after mining and construction. Most nursing homes are understaffed and require mandatory overtime. As a result, according …