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Working Together: December 10 - Bring Democracy to Work
Nearly 60 years ago, Eleanor Roosevelt led the effort within the United Nations to adopt a Universal Declaration of Human Rights that clearly stated that workers' rights to organize and bargain collectively are fundamental human rights. The declaration was ratified on December 10, 1948, and International Human Rights Day is celebrated on that date each year.
Roosevelt, carrying on the ideals she shared with her late husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, believed that the global mission of the U.S. was to promote democratic rights, both in the workplace and in political life. In the 10 years preceding that declaration, 10 million American workers had organized - often overcoming incredible resistance - under the labor law system that was one of FDR's great legacies.
Now 60 years later, collective bargaining rights indeed have expanded throughout the world - however, it's more than ironic that we have been going in the other direction here at home. Our labor laws have been weakened to the point that bargaining and organizing rights in the U.S. are inferior to virtually every other democracy, including newly emerging democracies.
More important, these nations have linked political and workplace democracy and union members have been in the forefront.
Consider South Africa, where the major labor federation COSATU led the fight against apartheid. Or Brazil, where the labor movement helped end a dictatorship 20 years ago, and whose president today is union leader Lula DaSilva.
And look at Taiwan, where until fairly recently there was a dictatorship with no workers' rights. Yet earlier this year, we worked actively with the Chunghwa Telecom Workers Union as they battled outsourcing and waged a general strike supported across that island nation.
In Eastern Europe, we all know the role of the Polish shipyard workers in bringing down a Communist dictatorship; and just last year, Ukrainian miners linked their own struggles for workers' rights with democratic political rights for the whole nation.
It's in this spirit that CWA and the AFL-CIO are encouraging local officers, shop stewards and union activists to reclaim December 10 and what it stands for. We need to say to our own employers that democracy does not stop at the workplace door where we have a union or at other entities of those same employers - like Verizon Wireless - where workers have no bargaining rights.
The weakening of worker protections in the U.S. had led to a decline in private sector union membership from about 35 percent in the 1950s to 8 percent today. And with that has come a shift in the political balance toward corporate and wealthy interests. This is a prime reason that we don't have a national health care system such as every other democracy has. It's why our retirement security is eroding, and why the dream of reaching a middle class lifestyle is slipping away from millions of people.
Most union growth lately has come in the public sector, where bargaining rights have been extended from 5 percent to 35 percent of public workers during this same 60-year period.
In CWA, we have great examples of public workers in New Jersey, New York, California and other states achieving collective bargaining rights. But we also have examples of workers in Texas, Mississippi and Oklahoma building organizations and fighting for 15 years for the rights that the rest of us take for granted.
In fact, in every other industrial democracy, virtually all public workers have unions and bargaining rights. In Canada, more than 90 percent of workers in the public sector and 20 percent in the private sector have unions and bargaining rights. In most of Europe, 90 percent of the private sector and more
than half in the public sector have collective bargaining.
December 10 is a call to action for our movement. We won't reverse conditions in the U.S. or improve them in Canada by actions in a single day - but we can start raising public awareness about what's at stake for all of us, and start building a broader, ongoing movement for change.
One major goal is the eventual passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, to reform our system of union organizing and collective bargaining. It is currently co-sponsored by 205 U.S. representatives and 41 senators - and we can build on that in next year's elections. Recently similar legislation was passed in New Jersey and there are campaigns in other states (see Law & Organizing).
This issue of CWA News highlights both the successes and the struggles that surround our battle to win workers' rights and build power at the workplace and in the political arena. CWA's website also covers the issues behind the December 10 mobilization in great detail.
I hope that you will "be there" with us on December 10 to work in our communities, saying loudly and clearly that democracy is alive and well in CWA workplaces, and that we will fight for it across America.
Roosevelt, carrying on the ideals she shared with her late husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, believed that the global mission of the U.S. was to promote democratic rights, both in the workplace and in political life. In the 10 years preceding that declaration, 10 million American workers had organized - often overcoming incredible resistance - under the labor law system that was one of FDR's great legacies.
Now 60 years later, collective bargaining rights indeed have expanded throughout the world - however, it's more than ironic that we have been going in the other direction here at home. Our labor laws have been weakened to the point that bargaining and organizing rights in the U.S. are inferior to virtually every other democracy, including newly emerging democracies.
More important, these nations have linked political and workplace democracy and union members have been in the forefront.
Consider South Africa, where the major labor federation COSATU led the fight against apartheid. Or Brazil, where the labor movement helped end a dictatorship 20 years ago, and whose president today is union leader Lula DaSilva.
And look at Taiwan, where until fairly recently there was a dictatorship with no workers' rights. Yet earlier this year, we worked actively with the Chunghwa Telecom Workers Union as they battled outsourcing and waged a general strike supported across that island nation.
In Eastern Europe, we all know the role of the Polish shipyard workers in bringing down a Communist dictatorship; and just last year, Ukrainian miners linked their own struggles for workers' rights with democratic political rights for the whole nation.
It's in this spirit that CWA and the AFL-CIO are encouraging local officers, shop stewards and union activists to reclaim December 10 and what it stands for. We need to say to our own employers that democracy does not stop at the workplace door where we have a union or at other entities of those same employers - like Verizon Wireless - where workers have no bargaining rights.
The weakening of worker protections in the U.S. had led to a decline in private sector union membership from about 35 percent in the 1950s to 8 percent today. And with that has come a shift in the political balance toward corporate and wealthy interests. This is a prime reason that we don't have a national health care system such as every other democracy has. It's why our retirement security is eroding, and why the dream of reaching a middle class lifestyle is slipping away from millions of people.
Most union growth lately has come in the public sector, where bargaining rights have been extended from 5 percent to 35 percent of public workers during this same 60-year period.
In CWA, we have great examples of public workers in New Jersey, New York, California and other states achieving collective bargaining rights. But we also have examples of workers in Texas, Mississippi and Oklahoma building organizations and fighting for 15 years for the rights that the rest of us take for granted.
In fact, in every other industrial democracy, virtually all public workers have unions and bargaining rights. In Canada, more than 90 percent of workers in the public sector and 20 percent in the private sector have unions and bargaining rights. In most of Europe, 90 percent of the private sector and more
than half in the public sector have collective bargaining.
December 10 is a call to action for our movement. We won't reverse conditions in the U.S. or improve them in Canada by actions in a single day - but we can start raising public awareness about what's at stake for all of us, and start building a broader, ongoing movement for change.
One major goal is the eventual passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, to reform our system of union organizing and collective bargaining. It is currently co-sponsored by 205 U.S. representatives and 41 senators - and we can build on that in next year's elections. Recently similar legislation was passed in New Jersey and there are campaigns in other states (see Law & Organizing).
This issue of CWA News highlights both the successes and the struggles that surround our battle to win workers' rights and build power at the workplace and in the political arena. CWA's website also covers the issues behind the December 10 mobilization in great detail.
I hope that you will "be there" with us on December 10 to work in our communities, saying loudly and clearly that democracy is alive and well in CWA workplaces, and that we will fight for it across America.