Workers

In These Times - This summer, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), representing 191 million workers through 340 national affiliates in 169 countries, ranked the United States among countries with ?“systemic violations of worker rights.”

The ITUC’s Global Rights Index assesses over 150 countries based on 97 indicators drawn from international standards and jurisprudence. Given the increase in violations since last year, the United States was placed on the report’s ?“Watchlist,” alongside Guinea-Bissau, Israel, Liberia, The Republic of Moldova, the Philippines and Zimbabwe.

The inclusion of the United States on the ITUC’s Watchlist is based on the pattern of backsliding of fundamental rights over the past year, and serves as a troubling indicator of the country’s current state of affairs.

The report notes that, in the United States:

·       More than one million federal workers have lost their right to collective bargaining.

·       The National Labor Relations Board has been left unable to fulfill its essential role of protecting workers’ rights.

·       Tens of thousands of immigrant union members have been stripped of their status and rights through the unlawful termination of various forms of rights-based protections and programs.

·       Immigration enforcement is being used as a tool to suppress the exercise of freedom of expression, assembly, and association by detaining or revoking the visas of workers who take action or express views contrary to those of the government.