NEWLETTERS

SPHRE  Newsletter of the Society for the Promotion of Human Rights in Employment

Volume 1 NUMBER 2, 1998

Membership continues to grow

As of the middle of December, 1998 membership in SPHRE was approaching 350.

From zero in December 1997 to 350 in December 1998 is a considerable rate of growth. Lets try to at least double that in 1999. The best approach we have found is for individuals to contact friends and colleagues who they know to have values sympathetic to SPHRE, tell them about SPHRE=s programme and ask them if they would like to get involved. The more people who commit to SPHRE the faster the message will get out.

Support

With a recent contribution of $350 US, Keri Spooner joined the ranks of major contributors. Thanks very much Keri.

In the fall of 1998, the McMaster University Staff Association decided at its annual meeting to become a lifetime member of SPHRE. We are very appreciative of MUSA $700 contribution.

Those of you who have not yet sent in your contributions please consider doing so as soon as possible.

Campaign against Ontario=s Bill 22

During the fall of 1998 SPHRE continued to pressure the Ontario government to give up its Prevention of Unionism Act (Bill 22) which is intended to dissuade workfare recipients from organizing and negotiating in their own interests contrary well-established international human rights norms on Freedom of Association and the Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively.

In November SPHRE sent a brief to the United Nations denouncing the initiative and in response the UN=s Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights declared the act to be a Aclear violation of article 8" of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and called on the government to repeal the offending sections.

Unfortunately, the government so far has displayed contempt for the UN and for the commitments it made when it signed the Covenant by passing the bill into law at the same time that the UN committee was considering evidence with respect to it. SPHRE will continue to publicize this human rights violation with a view towards pressuring the government to withdraw it.

SPHRE=s submission and the UN=s response are available (under ALinks to Related Resources@) at:

http://www.mtsu.edu/~rlhannah/sphre.html.

An article by Roy Adams on the Bill and SPHRE=s campaign against it was recently published in Canadian Dimension (December 1998 edition). See its website at:

www.canadiandimension.mb.ca/cd.

COMMUNICATIONS

Information on developments of relevance to human rights in employment are regularly posted to those subscribed to SPHRE=s internet discussion group. To receive this information and to participate in discussions on relevant issues you may subscribe by sending the following message:

subscribe HRE-L yourfirstname yourlastname

to

Listproc@listserv.mcmaster.ca

Spreading the Word

Most of those I have heard from considered the meeting in Bologna in conjunction with the International Industrial Relations Association=s World Congress to be a success.

Among those who made relevant presentations were: Brian Langille, Steve Hughes and Nigel Haworth, Keri Spooner, Roy Adams, Harish Jain, Hoyt Wheeler and Lance Compa.

Not only will Janice Bellace, Roy Adams and Jim Gross make presentations on aspects of Freedom of Association and the Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively at the annual meeting of the Industrial Relations Research Association in January 1999 but also the Employee Rights & Employment Policy Journal published by Chicago-Kent Law School has agreed to publish the papers (subject to review) as part of a symposium on the issue. Keep an eye out for it.

In the fall of 1999 two additional organizations passed resolutions affirming support for core labour rights (freedom of association, right to organize and bargain collectively, prohibition of forced labour, elimination of child labour and non-discrimination in employment and occupation) as fundamental human rights:

The McMaster University Staff Assn and the Northwest Regional Conference of the Laborer's International Union of North America.

In addition all of the following organizations have support for labour human rights on their agenda:

University and College Labor Education Assn

The Canadian Labour Education and Research Assn

The Critical Management Studies Group of the Academy of Management

The Industrial Relations Assn of South Africa

The Hungarian Industrial Relations Assn

The Greek Industrial Relations Assn

The Italian Industrial Relations Assn

The German Industrial Relations Assn

The British Universities Industrial Relations Association

Industrial Relations academics in both Fiji and Rumania are also considering the establishment of IR associations in their respective countries and the organizers have been contacted and asked to consider including a clause on core rights in their constitutions.

During the fall of 1999, steering committee chair Roy Adams gave talks on SPHRE related topics at the following universities: Limerick, Oxford, Toronto, McMaster and to a meeting of the Irish Industrial Relations Assn at Trinity College Dublin. He also addressed a conference on AHuman Rights - 50 years later@ held at Windsor University, Ontario on labour rights.

Meetings

The annual meeting of Jobs with Justice will focus in part on the Right to Organize and in part on a Living Wage. The latter is an issue that seems to be gaining momentum. Several US cities have, in the past few years, passed Living Wage ordinances and the fledgling US Labor Party made a Living Wage campaign a center piece of its early work. In addition, in the summer of 1998, representatives of several NGOs agreed to launch a campaign Aaimed at winning a living wage for apparel and shoe workers around the world.@   For more on Jobs with Justice have a look at its web page:

www.jwj.org.

Organizations

SPHRE has recently developed a working relationship with the International Centre for Trade Union Rights headquartered in London, England. ICTUR=s main mission is to promote legislation in countries around the world that is compliant with international labour standards. ICTUR regularly publishes a very useful journal - International Union Rights. To subscribe or to acquire more information email: ictur@gn.apc.org or fax: 0171 498 0611.

Organized Labour and Human Rights

Below is an abridged version of an article published recently in the Nation by Elaine Bernard, director of Harvard= s Trade Union Program and a member of the SPHRE exec:

At its core organized labor has always been a Arights@ movement. What are collective agreements, labour laws or even labor standards other than the codifications of workers=rights? What is a union other than an organization built by workers to win rights, and the vehicle necessary for exercising those rights? Putting the movement back into labor in the next century will mean constructing a powerful worldwide movement of working people.

We could start with every union office prominently displaying the Declaration of Human Rights. Unions, community groups and others should demand that all employers, including public-sector employers, accept the Declaration of Human Rights as a minimum standard of behavior. In organizing drives and in collective bargaining, the declaration should be circulated and promoted. Unions should insist it be added as a preamble to all collective agreements. Labor should work with religious, community and educational organizations to promote human rights, which include, by the way, the crucial right to organize...

The difference between having rights and being able to exercise them is not readily apparent. But in the same way that having a driver=s license doesn=t get you anywhere without the use of a car, it=s important to understand that there is a difference between having rights and having what it takes to exercise them--a vehicle.

Organized labor understands that rights are not self-actualizing. Collective agreements don=t enforce themselves. Like muscles, rights will atrophy if they are not exercised. And like muscles they are strengthened with use.

In opposition to the corporate rights agenda of free trade, privatization and deregulation, labor must inspire a global human rights agenda and become the leader of a national and international movement for the twenty-first century--in the workplace and beyond.

Labour Rights at Africa Summit

With advice from SPHRE, labor rights provisions were introduced into the policy papers of the National Summit on Africa held in Atlanta, Georgia on May 6 -10, 1998.  The Summit=s aim was to develop a shared A agenda for action@  for U.S. relations with African countries; educating Americans about the mutual benefits of closer relations with Africa; and broadening and strengthening the network of Africa=s supporters in the U.S.  The conference brought  in thousands of attendees and included an unlikely mix of speakers such as Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater, Rep. Newt Gingrich, Julius Nyerere, Mary Robinson (U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights), Lt. General Joe Ballard, and Judith McHale (CEO of Discovery Communications).

Working papers on a number of topics including democracy and human rights, economic development, trade and investment and job creation; and sustainable development, quality of life and the environment were presented.  Participants from the region were permitted to propose amendments which were voted on by other attendees at the sessions.  As labor rights were notably absent from the lengthy papers, Jeff Wheeler, a labor law attorney from Washington, D.C., after consultations with SPHRE, introduced amendments stating that the Summit recognizes that core labor rights, as defined by the ILO, are human rights and that they must be protected.  The amendments stated that Arespect for human rights in employment is a critical component in economic development@ and that free trade is to be encouraged in the context of respect for these rights.

The Summit also held a regional conference in Chicago and will be holding others in Denver, San Francisco, Houston, Boston, and Philadelphia.  Amendments to the working papers may also be presented at those conferences and are to be integrated into the final drafts after amendments have been made in all the regions.  The Summit=s website is www.africasummit.org.

Resources

Research on many of the issues of concern to SPHRE is regularly carried out by academics who focus on Business Ethics and Socially Responsible Investment. One of the organizations that bring together European academics around these issues is the European Business Ethics Network which regularly publishes a useful newsletter. The secretariat is located at Nijenrode Univ, Straatweg 25, NL 3621 BG Breukelen, The Netherlands, fax 31 3462 91296. Another organization many of whose members focus on business social responsibility is the International Assn of Business and Society whose web site is located at:

http://cac.psu.edu/~plc/iabs.html.

Human Rights for Workers is an e-zine which contains a wealth of information of relevance to SPHRE=s agenda. Have a look at:

www.senser.com

Teaching Suggestion

Teachers of courses in collective bargaining, industrial relations, labour law and

human resources management in colleges, universities and labour education programmes might consider having the class debate the following proposition:

"Given the International Labour Organization's Declaration on Fundamental

Principles and Rights at Work business organizations have an ethical

responsibility publicly to make known their willingness to enter into a

collective bargaining relationship with representatives freely chosen by

their employees.

For background information on the ILO=s Asolemn declaration@ have a look at its web site: www.ilo.org.

Sweatshop Alerts

The Washington-based Campaign for Labor offers and e-mail Labour Alerts service on sweatshop issues. CLR closely follows the activities of companies such as Nike, Disney, and Guess as well as developments in Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. The Labor Alerts service often disseminates information on issues such as child labor, prison labor, and workfare. Send an email message to CLR@igc.org with Alabor alerts-all campaigns@ in the subject line to subscribe or contact CLR for more information: http://www.summersault.com/~agj/clr/.

Books

Recently published books of interest:

No Sweat, fashion, free trade and the rights of

garment workers, ed. by Andrew Ross, London, Verso, 1997.

Canadian Corporations and Social Responsibility, eds. M. Hibler and R. Beamish, Ottawa, North-South Inst, 1998.

The Sex Sector, the economic and social bases of prostitution in Southeast Asia, ed. Lin Lean Lim, Ottawa, ILO, 1998.

Help

The success of SPHRE=s programme depends on you. Please consider taking a pledge to do three things in 1999 to promote human rights in employment:

1. Ask at least two people to join. If they say yes (and they should if they are sympathetic with SPHRE= s goals) then simply pass on their names and addresses to the secretariat and we will take it from there.

2. Learn more about human rights in employment. We hope to be putting out some background and working papers that should help.

3. Engage in at least one educational effort: teach a class, give a talk, bring up SPHRE at a meeting of one of your organizations, etc. The secretariat would be pleased to provide suggestions. Lets make 99 a great year.

The Society for the Promotion of Human Rights in Employment was established to promote awareness, understanding and respect for core labour rights considered internationally to be fundamental human rights. They include freedom of association, the right to organize and bargain collectively, protection against forced labour, protection against exploitative forms of child and protection against discrimination in employment or occupation. To join SPHRE or to acquire further information the organization may be contacted at:

SPHRE

PO Box 332

McMaster University

Hamilton, Canada, L8S 1C0

email: Sphre@mcmaster.ca