AFT's Antonia Cortese (r) joins labor leaders at Washington, D.C., rally and march. Photo by Michael Campbell.

AFT members and leaders joined thousands of trade unionists, civil rights and religious leaders, elected officials and others in cities across the country this week to commemorate International Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, and to draw public attention to the fact that here in the United States, the basic right to form a union can no longer be taken for granted.

From Sacramento to Boston, rallies, town hall meetings and other events put a spotlight on the increasing assaults on worker rights by corporations and anti-union politicians, aided and abetted by the White House. The protesters took particular aim at the policies of the Bush administration, including the attack on employee overtime rights, efforts to strip union representation rights from thousands of federal employees, and opposition to labor law reform that would crack down on employer intimidation and harassment of workers trying to organize.

In Washington, D.C., more than 200 AFT members and staffers were among the nearly 3,000 unionists and others who gathered on Dec. 8 for a rally in front of the AFL-CIO headquarters and then marched to the White House, chanting slogans and carrying signs.

In Boston, AFT president Edward J. McElroy spoke at the Workers' Freedom Trail Rally and March, one of the largest events of the week. Even though the right to organize is not a radical one and has been a "settled matter for generations," McElroy told the crowd, "most Americans would be shocked to find out what nonunion workers go through trying to organize and that union workers often can't get a contract."

Many employers are taking advantage of loopholes in current labor law to harass, intimidate and even fire workers trying to organize a union or to avoid negotiating a first contract through a drawn-out complaint process under the National Labor Relations Board.

At the Washington rally, AFT executive vice president Antonia Cortese said that workers should be able to decide for themselves whether or not to join a union, "free from threats and intimidation." But the Bush administration has set a "malicious anti-worker tone" that has emboldened the governors of Indiana, Missouri and Kentucky to strip bargaining rights of public employees in those states, she said.

AFL-CIO executive vice president Linda Chavez-Thompson told the crowd, "America used to stand proud before the world as a land where the right of working people to have a union was respected. But today, that right has been destroyed."

Other speakers included NEA president Reg Weaver, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) president John Gage, and Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

"It is a shame and a downright embarrassment that the U.S. has been singled out by Human Rights Watch because we don't respect a workers' right to form a union," McEntee said. "Our message is loud and clear: the right to organize is a human right, a civil right and an American right."

'Unwarranted, Outrageous and an Insult'
Among the most compelling speakers was Department of Defense employee Keith Hill, who is stationed at the Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania and is president of AFGE Local 1647. "One of our most fundamental freedoms is under attack, not in some foreign country, but right here in the United States," said Hill, referring to proposed personnel policies that would gut bargaining rights and eliminate basic civil service protections for 650,000 DOD civilian employees and 160,00 Homeland Security employees. Hill, who has provided on-the-ground support for U.S. troops in Afghanistan and whose brother and son are in Iraq or about to be deployed there, said, "This attack is unwarranted, outrageous and an insult to the people who fight daily for this country."

Throughout the week, an overriding message is to urge Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which would ensure that a majority of employees in a workplace could form a union without facing crippling anti-union tactics.

International Human Rights Day, Dec. 10, is the anniversary of the ratification of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognized the right to join a union and bargain as a basic human right.

In the week leading up to the these activities, 11 recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize, including former President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, and former Polish president Lech Walesa, released a statement calling on the nations of the world to abide by the UN Declaration of Human Rights and to fully recognize and defend workers' freedom to form unions and bargain collectively. [Roger Glass, Trish Gorman, AFL-CIO]

December 9,  2005