Why are Workers' Rights Violations So Rampant?

[Earth Bound Misfit]

http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/publications/general/why-are-workers-rights-violations-so-rampant.html


The right to form a union and collectively bargain is a basic right, recognized by U.S. federal law since 1935 and universally recognized and protected around the world. So why is it that over 20,000 workers are fired or discriminated against each year for union activities in this country? One reason workers’ rights violations are so widespread is because the American labor law system offers terribly weak punishments.

American Employers Face No Effective Reprisals for Violating Workers’ Rights

A Slap on the Wrist: If an employer is found guilty of violating labor law, the typical remedy is ordering the employer to post a notice in the workplace promising not to break the law.

No Punitive Damages: Employers that illegally fire workers for union activity are not required to pay fines or damages. The law just requires a worker’s lost earnings to be repaid, minus whatever amount the worker earned in the interim.

Bargain Prices: In 2003, the average “backpay” award for a worker was $3,800. Human Rights Watch has assessed that employers are aware that an order to pay backpay is a “small price to pay to destroy a workers’ organizing effort by firing its leaders.”

No Three-Strikes Law: Repeat violations can continue indefinitely because the NLRA does not provide for tougher penalties for repeat violators, in contrast to OSHA, EPA and other governmental agencies.

Technicalities: The government turns a blind eye to behavior undermining the intention of the law. 75% of employers hire consultants during organizing drives. These “unionbusting” consultants help companies implement legal tactics to thwart workers’ rights to organize without technically breaking the law.

[The Magistrate]

1. Exactly, Sir: Because There Are No Penalties

Business owners are famously deterable, and if they faced real fines and even jail time, would quickly alter their behavior....

"More Wars! Less Jobs! McCain '08"

[Earth Bound Misfit]

3. Under current labor law, the only thing corporations have to lose ...

...is their employees.

[whistle]

2. return to classical exploitation of workers...

<snip>
Exploitation:

The term "exploitation" may carry two distinct meanings:

- The act of utilizing something for any purpose. In this case, exploit is a synonym for use.
- The act of utilizing something in an unjust or cruel manner. It is this meaning of exploitation which is discussed below.

In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation involves a persistent social relationship in which certain persons are being mistreated or unfairly used for the benefit of others. This corresponds to one ethical conception of exploitation, that is, the treatment of human beings as mere means to an end — or as mere "objects". In different terms, "exploitation" refers to the use of people as a resource, with little or no consideration of their well-being. This can take the following basic forms:

- taking something off a person or group that rightfully belongs to them
- short-changing people in trade
- directly or indirectly forcing somebody to work
- using somebody against his will, or without his consent or knowledge
- imposing an arbitrary differential treatment of people to the advantage of some and the disadvantage of others (as in ascriptive discrimination)

Most often, the word exploitation is used to refer to economic exploitation; that is, the act of using another person's labor without offering them an adequate compensation. There are two major perspectives on economic exploitation:

- organizational or "micro-level" exploitation: in the broad tradition of liberal economic thinking, most theories of exploitation center on the market power of economic organizations within a market setting. Some neoclassical theory points to exploitation not based on market power.
- structural or "macro-level" exploitation: "new liberal" theories focus on exploitation by large sections of society even (or especially) in the context of free markets. Marxist theory points to the entire capitalist class as an exploitative entity, and to capitalism as a system based on exploitation.

<MORE>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploitation