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Truthout...
Assault on Collective
Bargaining Illegal, Says International Labor Rights Group
by Jeanne Mirer and Marjorie Cohn
Sunday 13 March 2011
The International Commission for Labor Rights (ICLR) sent a notice to
the Wisconsin Legislature, explaining that its attempt to strip
collective bargaining rights from public workers is illegal.
Anyone who has watched the events unfolding in Wisconsin and other
states that are trying to remove collective bargaining rights from
public workers has heard people protesting the loss of their “rights.”
(For more on the record turnout, see this story.) The ICLR explained to
the legislature exactly what these rights are and why trying to take
them away is illegal.
The ICLR is a New York-based nongovernmental organization that
coordinates a pro bono network of labor lawyers and experts throughout
the world. It investigates labor rights violations and issues reports
and amicus briefs on issues of labor law.
The ICLR identified the right of “freedom of association” as a
fundamental right and affirmed that the right to collective bargaining
is an essential element of freedom of association. These rights, which
have been recognized worldwide, provide a brake on unchecked corporate
or state power.
In 1935, when Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (also
known as the NLRA, or the Wagner Act), it recognized the direct
relationship between the inequality of bargaining power of workers and
corporations and the recurrent business depressions. That is, by
depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage earners, the
economy fell into depression. The law therefore recognized as policy of
the United States the encouragement of collective bargaining.
While the NLRA covered US employees in private employment, the law
protecting collective bargaining in both the public and private sectors
has developed since 1935 to cover all workers “without distinction.”
Read the full story at Truthout
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