US violates worker's internationally recognized rights

The ICFTU has published today a survey where it criticizes the US for it's "anti-worker" policies and the wide-spread use of "Union-busting" techniques: "There is an entire industry in the United States of consultants and lawyers whose sole purpose is to suppress the freedom of workers to form unions and bargain collectively. During union organising campaigns, about 75 per cent of employers hire these people to run anti-union campaigns that are often based on mass psychology and distorting the law."(1)

This report further states that US's "own government doesn't do more to protect workers' basic rights" and that the US administration is "the most anti-worker government since Herbert Hoover. It has stripped 40,000 of its own employees of the freedom to bargain collectively, and threatened many more workers' freedom to form a union. It's outrageous in a nation where private sector employers block workers' organising efforts with near impunity".

Other countries

The US is not in good company. The report cites Burma, Colombia and China just to name a few. These countries however do not have real democratic structures in place(Burma and China) or are ravated by a "war on drugs" that is maintained at the expense of it's own people (Colombia).

Ohter "western" nations are cited also in this report. Check out the link below for the full report.

Dying for a cause

This report mentions many deaths of union activists. These deaths often follow nothing else than publishing an article about corrupt governments (like Burma).
Today, like in the past people are dying for the simple reason that they fight for their rights! Those people are giving their lifes for their fellow citizens and workers, they deserve more attention from the mass media than just a short article in the middle pages like the one that the Washington Post has published.


(1) ICFTU's annual survey of violations of trade union rights
(2) Washington Post article that compares US to dictatorial countries in it's labor practices