New Campaign Asserts 'Workers Rights are Human Rights'
Feature Story by Ritu Kelotra - 12/9/2003
As part of International Human Rights Day on Wednesday, December 10, tens of thousands of workers, activists, community leaders and public officials took action nationwide to restore the freedom to form unions and bargain collectively in the United States.International Human Rights Day commemorates the anniversary of the ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, which guarantees the right of people in every nation to organize as workers. Unions across the country have launched a "Voice @ Work" campaign with the message that "workers rights are human rights."
"The freedom to form or join a union is a fundamental civil right based on our constitutional freedom of association, our nation's labor laws, and international human rights laws, including the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. "It is a civil right that millions of Americans have struggled for; and a right that Dr. King was supporting during the Memphis sanitation strike when he was assassinated in 1968."
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), including AFGE President John Gage, joined hundreds of fellow unionists and Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., at a rally on Wed., December 10.
International Human Rights Day falls just one month after workers joined with lawmakers to propose the Employee Free Choice Act, which, if passed, would ensure that when a majority of employees in a workplace decide to form a union, they have the right to do so without obstacles and coercion from their employers.
Introduced in the U.S. Senate and House by sponsors Sen. Kennedy and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the Employee Free Choice Act (S. 1952, H.R. 3619), is awaiting approval from Senate and House committees.
"These protections are long-overdue," Sen. Kennedy said. "At a critical time like this when we are fighting for the basic freedoms of other peoples in other lands, we cannot fail to take a stand for the basic freedoms of the millions of American workers who depend on us to protect their rights at home."
