Russell Mokhiber 

and Robert Weissman

"While

in theory U.S. law provides for workers to have freedom of association, the

right to join trade unions and participate in collective bargaining is in

practice denied to large segments of the American workforce in both the public

and the private sectors."

That

is the central conclusion of a new report issued by the Brussels-based

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)

.

Sometimes

it takes an outsider to put matters in perspective. Those living in a society

may become dulled to its everyday injustices; or key elements of society may be

hidden from the view of many; or people may come to view their culture as the

natural state of things, rather than the particular result of a certain social

arrangement.

It

was this outsider’s point of view that enabled Alexis de Tocqueville to write

one of the still-great political sociological critiques of the United States,

Democracy in America.

And

this same perspective enables the ICFTU researchers to plainly, directly and

concisely convey the widespread sabotage of worker rights in the United States.

Here’s

what the report details with piercing clarity:

"Employers

receive legal protection for extensive interference in the decision of workers

as to whether or not they wish to have union representation. This includes

active campaigning by employers among employees against union representation as

well as participating in campaigns to eliminate union representation."

"Penalties

for breaking the law are so limited and ineffective that there is a high level

of corporate lawlessness with respect to labor law. At least one in 10 union

supporters campaigning to form a union is illegally fired."

Employers

engage in widespread harassment and intimidation against union supporters. Often

the consultants, detectives and security firms used to intimidate workers engage

in "surveillance of union activists in order to discredit them. In some

cases, court, medical and credit records of union activists are obtained and the

family lives of activists are studied for possible weaknesses."

Many

government workers, the report notes, are denied the right to strike or bargain

collectively over hours, wages and other critical issues. Nearly half of public

workers suffer from full or partial denial of collective bargaining rights.

Union

supporters who suffer from illegal firings, harassment, surveillance or improper

employer electioneering do not have adequate remedies at the National Labor

Relations Board. NLRB procedures, ICFTU correctly states, "do not provide

workers with effective redress in the face of abuses by employers." NLRB

delays and inability to award damages more than job reinstatement and lost wages

(minus earnings during the period between illegal dismissal and NLRB order) are

so severe that many wronged union supporters simply do not bother filing a case

with the NLRB.

Employers

also routinely eviscerate the rights of those workers who are unionized:

"The

law gives employers the ‘free play of economic forces.’ If employers cannot get

what they want through collective bargaining, they can unilaterally impose their

terms, lock out their employees, and transfer work to another location, or even

to another legal entity." The ICFTU reports refers to Crown Central

Petroleum’s lockout of 250 Texas workers as an example.

"An

increasing number of employers have deliberately provoked strikes to get rid of

trade unions. Unacceptable demands are made of workers and are often accompanied

by arrangements for the recruiting and training of strike-breakers."

Strike-breakers

are also used to prevent unions from ever reaching a first contract.

And,

in one of the great travesties of the U.S. legal system, while the law does

prohibit the firing of workers for exercising collective bargaining rights, at

the same time it permits employers to lock out and "permanently

replace" those workers.

The

ICFTU report also criticizes the United States for permitting widespread use of

child labor, especially in the agricultural industry and among migrant workers;

and, in a growing number of cases, permitting prisoners to be compelled to work

for pay (for rates as low as 23 cents a day).

"A

series of far-reaching measures need to be taken in order to establish genuine

respect for core labor standards within the United States, particularly with

regard to trade union rights," the ICFTU report modestly concludes.

Because

the report was prepared as a submission to the World Trade Organization, it

emphasizes the importance of the United States ratifying International Labor

Organization conventions on core worker rights.

But

something much more fundamental is needed before the systematic assault on U.S.

worker rights is ended. Comprehensive labor law reform is imperative; even more

important is an upsurge in labor organization and militancy, with workers

forcing employers to recognize their rights irrespective of legal enforcement.

The

awesome challenge, of course, is how to generate that militancy and organizing

burst when U.S. corporations are ruthless enough to fire one in ten union

supporters.

Russell

Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter.

Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor.

They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the

Attack on Democracy (Common Courage Press, 1999, http://www.corporatepredators.org.)