Union Members Express Solidarity in Support of Human Rights

The protection and defense of fundamental human rights, so essential to advancing equality, reducing conflict, and enhancing democratic participation, were foremost in the hearts and minds of more than 60,000 people who attended hundreds of rallies and special events around the world in observance of International Human Rights Day on December 10, 2005. Participants from all walks of life demonstrated in support of the right to form unions and to bargain collectively for a better life.

BAC members and IU staff participated in a Human Rights Day rally.

Through the combined efforts of the AFL-CIO, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, and national federations worldwide, events were held in nine countries spanning four continents.

First recognized in 1950, International Human Rights Day was designated by President Dwight Eisenhower to commemorate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to remind individuals of the basic rights afforded in a free and open society, including the right to free association.

Media coverage of the events was widespread. From the New York Times and Washington Post to local newspapers such as the South Bend Tribune, workers’ rights were given the attention they deserve.

"The ability to form unions is the key to this nation’s middle class, yet the right to come together in a union is a fundamental freedom that has been eroded beyond recognition.” –AFL-CIO President John Sweeney

Quoted in the December 7th Christian Science Monitor, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said, “The average person doesn’t know the horror stories that are out there when a worker wants to join a union, doesn’t know what employers spend in high-priced legal firms whose job is to build an anti-union environment in the workplace or to bust unions. The ability to form unions is the key to this nation’s middle class, yet the right to come together in a union is a fundamental freedom that has been eroded beyond recognition.”

News accounts of those “horror stories” include a December 7, 2005 article in the Chicago Sun-Times titled, “Report Says Deck Stacked Against Union Organization,” which told the story of Martin Unzueto. While working at a local printing company, Unzueto began an organizing campaign to improve working conditions, but his hours were cut, he was fired, and the other workers voted against unionization.

In a New York Times article published December 9, 2005 titled, “Labor to Press for Workers’ Right to Join Unions,” Kelvin Banks of Jackson, Mississippi said he and 340 other employees of a call center rushed to join the Communications Workers of American when AT&T Wireless merged with Cingular Wireless. After the merger, the Cingular Wireless-run call center agreed not to fight unionization. “When AT&T ran it, there was a lot of fear,” Banks explained.

A recent report by the University of Chicago’s Center for Urban Economic Development found that 30 percent of Chicago-area employers fired workers involved in union organizing, nearly half threatened to close or relocate, and 82 percent hired consultants “to help them fend off unions.”

In addition to public rallies, 11 Nobel Peace Laureates signed a “Global Call for Human Rights in the Workplace.” In this statement, the laureates, which include former President Jimmy Carter, Bishop Desmond Tutu, and the Dalai Lama, called for global economic prosperity and democracy, and publicized the fact that in many countries these rights are rarely protected.

In the U.S. today, millions of workers have no legal protection to form unions and thousands are discriminated against for simply exercising their rights. Abroad, the work environment is often worse. In Burma and China, it is illegal to form an independent trade union. In Zimbabwe, Belarus, and Colombia, union activists are harassed, beaten, arrested, and mistreated by the police. Ninety trade unionists were murdered in Colombia last year alone.

At a time when political hostility towards unions is so great, International Human Rights Day afforded union members and like-minded citizens across the globe an opportunity to express their solidarity.