Berger-Marks Foundation News Archives

Yale New Haven Hospital Calls for New Union Election

Bill vs. pay discrimination approved by House Committee

Taken from PAI information

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Summer schools for union women

Thanks to CLUW for providing this information

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Employee Free Choice Act introduced into Senate March 29

House voted 241-185 for worker rights

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Right to organize guarantees in trade pacts

AFL-CIO: Trade policy needs big overhaul & enforcement of worker rights

Trade agreements must guarantee workers the right to organize, ban child labor and prohibit forced labor in trading-partner countries. Although Republicans vowed in the past never to sign an agreement that contains such rights (and the NAFTA pact mentioned them only in a weak side agreement that proved nearly impossible to enforce), the Bush administration finally backed down and agreed to include labor rights in four pending agreements.

Congressional Democrats, led by Charles Rangel of New York, had insisted that workers' rights be included in free-trade pacts with Peru, Panama, South Korea and Columbia. The pacts would also require trading partners to enforce environmental laws already on their books and give them better access to generic drugs.

Free trade disaster for working families

Democrats are responding to complaints from unions, widespread unease among workers, and factual evidence (see Economic Policy Institute) showing that free-trade pacts intensify competition among workers who are denied their basic rights, push down standards for workers worldwide, and make organizing more difficult. Democrats are also insisting that any trade pact with Columbia, where labor leaders are frequently murdered, must go farther to secure the safety of labor activists.

Labor rights not enforced

It was the fear among business leaders that putting labor rights in trade AFL-CIO President Sweeney agreements could bolster the power of American unions that actually spurred Bush’s resistance to them, reported the Washington Post.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the labor federation will reserve final judgment until it’s seen the full agreements. He says trade policies have been broken for decades, and since the Bush administration has not enforced labor provisions that already exist in some trade deals, he cautions that there’s no guarantee any new rights on paper will be enforced either.