Kate Allen: standing firm on workers' rights in the USA

Solidarity with US unions

We are one campaign

4 April 2011

As part of the TUC's support for the US trade union movement's campaign to defend collective bargaining rights for public sector workers, the TUC held a solidarity rally on Monday 4 April.

Kate Allen, Director of Amnesty International UK spoke about the human rights implications of developments in the US. This is an edited text.

I am proud, on behalf of Amnesty International, to be with you today to show solidarity with workers in the United States who are standing up in defence of their fundamental human rights.

Let there be no doubt: the right to organise, the right to join and form trade unions, the right to collective bargaining, and the right to strike - these are universal human rights.

They are contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the international covenants, in the ILO Core conventions. The United States has promised to uphold these rights and we are here today to remind law makers of these obligations.

The right to organise at work is a crucial enabling right, it is the basis on which workers and communities can defend their living standards, protect their health and livelihoods, and defend the public services that the most vulnerable are usually most reliant upon.

Not only do trade unions give voice to workers' aspirations, they also stand up for our communities and services, and they resist discrimination and disenfranchisement. It is because unions are effective that they are under attack, and it is because they are effective that we are seeing unprecedented levels of community resistance whether in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Florida and in other States where fundamental worker protections are under challenge.

There is a direct link between the right to organise and the average wages that workers can enjoy. That is as true here in the UK as it in America. In the US poverty levels, lack of health insurance, infant mortality - are all higher in States which curtail union rights. It is no surprise that so called 'right to work' states have a higher rate of accidents - 52 per cent higher according to the US Bureau of Labour.

I have just returned from Amnesty USA's annual general meeting where members and supporters came together as one to express our solidarity with trade unionists and communities in defence of their rights.

Many employees are already struggling because of the economic crisis, and labour rights and the protection of union representation are sorely needed to ensure that employees do not bear the brunt of the crisis. The struggle for union rights is also a struggle for migrant workers' rights, for education and health rights, for wage security, for workplace health and safety.

Amnesty is steadfast in our insistence that workers must enjoy their fundamental rights to organise, to strike, to collectively bargain. There can be no equivocation. State governors and legislators must withdraw support for these measures which violate international law.

And let's make no mistake - labour rights are not only important for workers, but are essential for the promotion of our wider social and human rights goals. Public sector workers are typically the strongest and fiercest advocates of good value effective public services.

If we are to tackle, for example, the wide racial disparities in sexual health and maternal mortality in the USA we need to correct the shortage of health care professionals that is a serious obstacle to timely and adequate care. We need to defend public hospitals and workers' health benefits, we need to improve access to education, we need more and better rewarded teachers and health care professionals - and workplace bargaining and strong unions are the best guarantee of secure and sustainable services.

This year Amnesty International is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. In the article that Peter Benenson wrote in the Observer newspaper back in 1961, which lead to Amnesty's foundation, one of the cases he raised was that of Tony Ambelitos, a trade unionist who was imprisoned by the Greek junta solely for the exercise of his union rights. For fifty years we have defended workers rights and we are here today to renew that commitment and continue the struggle.

We are witnessing an unprecedented call for human rights and democracy in the Middle East and North Africa, and in Tunisia it is organised labour that has led the way. In Egypt independent trade unions have broken the pall of fear and silence and mobilised and organised for change. Arab women workers are coming together and demanding that their voices be heard, and it is their labour unions that are providing platforms for solidarity and resistance.

Wherever labour rights are under attack, Amnesty will stand up and be counted.

Amnesty UK has partnered with our small Section in Turkey to reach out to trade unionists who are facing an increasing onslaught from employers and the state. Just last week we have joined together with two federations and eleven unions to prepare for a campaign to demand that Turkey respects the fundamental rights contained in the ILO core conventions.

On May Day Turkish trade unions will distribute 100,000 Amnesty action cards in over 81 cities and communities calling on the incoming government to guarantee fundamental workers rights following the June 12th election. We will replicate this demand globally and we will be calling on British trade unions to play their part in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in Turkey who are struggling to have their rights respected in their workplaces.

And we know that together we are stronger. Here in the UK we are proud of our partnership with the British TUC and proud of the thirty years and more of collaboration between Amnesty and unions. We have never been stronger than we are today. In the two years since we opened up our trade union network to individuals, we have grown to become the largest specialist network in the UK, with over 14,000 subscribers.

Together we can make a difference. When the government of Gambia prosecuted six trade unionists, we came together with the TUC and the global unions to demand their release. A few weeks into two year sentences for sedition, all six were pardoned.

When we learnt that Mansour Ossanlu, the jailed leader of the Tehran bus workers union was being denied an operation that he needed to save his eyesight, we came together with you and sent fifteen thousand protest messages through our website over five days - that is more than one action a minute night and day - until, without precedent, he was taken from his jail cell to have the operation he needed.

And we are coming together in defence of Gertrude Hambira, leader of the agricultural workers' union in Zimbabwe, who has been forced into exile for speaking out against the land-grabs of Mugabe's cronies, which are leading to forced evictions of the poor land workers that she represents.

By teaming up with the International Union of Foodworkers we have been able to focus our appeals on Gertrude's behalf on those countries of greatest influence on the Mugabe government. Action cards have been distributes in Brazil, in Mozambique, through African women's trade union networks, and in Russia reminding the authorities that the eyes of the world are upon them.

And we have shown solidarity as well with the brave trade unionists of Colombia, which continues to be a killing ground for workers who are organising. We have shown solidarity with Konstatina Kuneva in Greece, with Su Su Nway in Burma and with other brave women and men whose only crimes have been to stand up for their fellow workers.

I know that these struggles will be long and that the road ahead will be rocky. There is a great deal at stake, but I take encouragement from the unprecedented and inspiring mobilisation of communities across the US, bringing together students and service users alongside organised labour in mass protests on a scale unseen in decades. I take comfort that public opinion is on our side, that right will surely trump might, that our values - values of decency and dignity, of justice and solidarity will surely prevail.

On April 4, 1968, shortly before his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood with sanitation workers in Memphis to demand human rights, basic respect and collective bargaining to gain a better life. Today, hundreds of thousands of people are taking the same stand?together. I am proud to be with you and Amnesty is proud to be amongst your number.