Labor's New Opening to International Human Rights Standards

Abstract

Most trade unionists were oblivious to international human rights movement in the last half of the twentieth century. For their part, human rights advocates did not include workers' rights on their agenda. But in the late 1990s, labor and human rights advocates came together to reframe workers' collective action as a human rights mission rather than a self-interested syndical action. A new labor-human rights alliance built a wide-ranging discourse of workers' rights as human rights. The expertise and knowledge attributable to human rights actors gave their critique of workers' rights violations in the U.S. a high measure of authoritativeness compared with trade unionists making the same claims.Critics suggest that a human rights frame moves away from a class analysis, de-emphasizing principles of industrial democracy and mass action in favor of individual rights. This article argues that a human rights argument can help win needed labor law reform to protect workers' rights.

Scaling up by law? Canadian labour law, the nation‐state and the case of the British Columbia Health Employees Union

“…The ILO and international courts may give labour some ability to represent its interests and create new alliances with human rights advocates and GJNs. Indeed, unions are increasingly charging employers for violations of international human rights law rather than just national labour law, since doing so puts firms on the defensive with the public (Compa 2008, 108). In the Canadian case, federal state commitments to the ILO were used by labour to defend key rights.…”

“…Globalisation has also complicated labour’s relationship with nation‐state legal institutions as international labour law has increased in significance (Compa 2008). Formal universal state ‘hard’ regulation is viewed as declining in favour of ‘softer’ more particularised forms, including voluntary corporate codes and monitoring by civil society organisations emphasising human rights (Arthurs 2006).…”

“…Despite such positive reactions, I argue that this ruling needs to be understood within a historical series of legal framings of labour’s rights by the Canadian state that have both reflected and circumscribed labour’s scalar capacities (Palmer 2003; Panitch and Swartz 2003; Tucker 2008). Importantly, the HEU struggles and the Court’s decision also reflect new forms of state governance drawing on international labour law and the redefining of labour rights as human rights (Compa 2008; Fudge 2008). I thus place this study within human and labour geography debates concerning the law and the state.…”

“…Unable to overturn the Bill through strike action, the union scaled up via the federal Supreme Court and the International Labour Organization (ILO) to force Canada to honour ILO conventions to which it had previously committed. Despite the HEU’s victory, however, there is significant debate amongst scholars concerning labour’s use of international law (see Compa 2008; Fudge 2008). As critically, the case reveals the defensiveness of Canadian workers when confronting neoliberalism.…”

Decentering the prosecution-oriented approach: Tackling both supply and demand in the struggle against human trafficking

“…A new labour-human rights alliance built a wide ranging discourse of workers' rights as human rights. 145 Subsequently, these developments encouraged the labour movement to investigate new sources of legitimacy and new strategies and modes of operation. For instance, the ILO adopted in 1998 its Fundamental Declaration of Principles and Rights at Work which reflected the approach taken under the human rights paradigm.…”