----- Original Message ----- From: Veronica <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, September 01, 2000 11:16 AM Subject: Cornell Study Finds U.S. Workers Basic Rights Routinely Violated (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Ithaca Today http://ithacatoday.com/ September 1, 2000 Cornell Study on U.S. Labor Law and Human Rights by Linda Myers Workers' basic rights are routinely violated in the United States, asserts a comprehensive study by a Cornell University expert on labor law. U.S. labor law is feebly enforced, riddled with loopholes, and fails to meet the basic human rights standards that the United States demands of other countries, says Lance Compa, a senior lecturer at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR). Compa, who teaches courses in U.S. labor law and international labor rights, conducted the study for Human Rights Watch with support from that organization and the Ford Foundation. The report is being released Aug. 31, 2000, by Human Rights Watch, on the eve of the annual Labor Day holiday in the United States. Compa's 217-page report, "Unfair Advantage: Workers' Freedom of Association in the United States under International Human Rights Standards," was based on field research he directed in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Washington and other states. Compa and a small staff of researchers examined workers' rights to organize, to bargain collectively and to strike under international norms. It found widespread labor rights violations across regions, industries, jobs and job levels. "The significance of the report," says Compa, "is it's the first time that workers' rights in the U.S. have been looked at through the lens of international human rights law. The report shows the United States comes up short in many areas. Unless we correct those shortcomings, it will be difficult for us to pressure other countries to upgrade their labor standards." Compa points out that the U.S. government has called for "core labor standards," including workers' freedom of association, to be included in the rules of the World Trade Organization and the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. Editor's Note: Journalists who want to access the report before the embargo date can do so with username "labor" and password "rights2000" at Human Rights Watch's web site. Compa is available to answer questions about the report Aug. 31 - Sept. 4 at the Human Rights Watch phone number listed at the top of this release. After that date he can be reached through Cornell News Service. He identifies two key areas where the United States fails to meet core labor standards: 1.employers commonly fire workers who try to form unions; and 2.millions of workers are excluded from the laws protecting the right to organize. The report shows that each year thousands of workers in the United States are fired from their jobs or suffer other reprisals for trying to organize unions, says Compa. And millions - from farmers to domestic workers to supervisors and managers - are excluded by law from organizing and bargaining, and the numbers are growing. Some employers resist union organizing by dragging out legal proceedings for years, the report reveals. In fact, Compa and his researchers found U.S. labor laws have become so weak that companies often treat their minor penalties as a routine cost of doing business, not a deterrent against violations. Despite those hazards, however, some workers have succeeded in organizing new unions in recent years, the report said, but only after surmounting major obstacles. Compa is co-editor of the book Human Rights, Labor Rights, and International Trade (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996). He was the first director of Labor Law and Economic Research at the trinational Secretariat of the Commission for Labor Cooperation in Dallas, Texas, where he oversaw labor law and policy studies under the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), NAFTA's labor-side agreement. The report is available on the Human Rights Watch web site at http://xmail.hrw.org/us-labor/ username: labor password: rights2000
