Trade unions are critical to protecting and promoting human rights including economic, social, and cultural rights and the right to be free from discrimination.
First, they play a key role through negotiations with employers and collective action in supporting workers’ rights. In so doing, unions balance the scales of power, ensuring that workers are in a position to advocate for their rights, and holding those who run wealthy and powerful companies to account.
Second, the benefits of trade unions go far beyond the workplace. Unions are the fuel that keeps the fires of social justice and people power burning so that workers’ rights are respected and protected by law. Throughout history, unions have been the driving force behind calls on governments and employers to acknowledge and prevent human rights abuses that are connected to their business operations. They also ensure laws are adopted and reformed to better respect and protect the rights of workers.
Finally, unions have a long history of solidarity with other global human rights movements. From strikes in the 80s against apartheid in South Africa to the union-backed campaigns against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, their actions consistently demonstrate the bond between trade unionism and social justice.
What is a trade union?
Trade unions, sometimes called labour unions, are organizations of workers who collaborate to protect and improve their employment and working conditions. As a collective, they can more effectively advocate for issues such as better pay, better working conditions and fairer employment practices.
Not only do they negotiate binding agreements with their employers, they also often organize campaigns to improve legislation with the aim of enhancing human rights protection at work. These include national laws and standards on health and safety at work and statutory parental pay.
Despite evidence that trade unions contribute to furthering worker’s rights, many governments still have laws that excessively limit and control how unions operate. Businesses who see unions as adversaries often go to great lengths to demonize and suppress workers’ ability to collectively organize, including by firing employees for their union activity and support. Even though such tactics should be prohibited, many companies continue to carry out union-busting with impunity.
Should all workers be able to join a union?
Yes, everyone has a right to become a union member. This right is specifically granted to everyone in Article 23(4) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 8 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The right to join or create a union is a form of self-organization and part of the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining, which is enshrined across many international, regional and national legal frameworks. Unionizing also relates to our rights to expression, free speech and protest.
The International Labour Organization Constitution also sets rules that prohibit anti-union discrimination. This means that a worker shouldn’t be treated differently just because they’re a union member.
How do unions protect workers?
In some respects, unions operate in a similar way to human rights campaigning groups. Members meet to discuss the issues that are impacting them and then agree on a collective position that they will advocate together on. By working together, their calls are more powerful and harder to ignore than if workers tried to push for these changes on their own. This process is referred to as collective bargaining.
However, unlike other types of campaigning groups, trade unions will usually have a special recognition under the law which gives them the power to negotiate legally binding agreements with employers.
Many unions also provide services such as training or legal support and representation. This enables their members to be more effective in advocating for protection of their rights at work.
What is collective bargaining?
Collective bargaining is when a group of workers negotiate with their employer to advocate for better pay, better working conditions and better recognition of human rights. By working together and through collective solidarity, workers can achieve better outcomes When people work together, they have more power and can therefore better defend their human rights.
How do unions help protect the right to be free from discrimination?
Unions not only cover issues relating to working conditions and pay, but also the right to be free from discrimination more generally as well as the right to freedom of association and expression.
Unions play a vital role in preventing discrimination in the workplace. They can represent workers most at risk of abuse and give them an opportunity to negotiate with employers on workplace policies, making sure they are effective and inclusive. They also use collective action to make sure employers act on their commitment to their own policies.
Unfortunately, discrimination at work is still commonplace, especially when the right to unionize is repressed. This is demonstrated in the garment and fashion industries which heavily rely on poorly paid workers, usually women, who can face intersecting discriminations based on gender, race, religion and caste.
What are some examples of successful union organizing?
There have been countless examples of successful union organizing over since the first trade union was founded. These include the creation of the weekend and equal pay laws.
In India, for example, the Tamil Nadu Textile and Common Labour Union (TTCU), a collective largely organized by Indian women and Dalit workers, won a landmark victory in 2022 by reaching an agreement with textile manufacturer Eastman Exports to end gender-based violence and harassment in factories. Legally binding agreements were also signed with several multinational fashion brands whose products were made in Eastman factories. These make the brands jointly responsible for the enforcement of better standards and practices to protect factory workers from violence and harassment.
A similar agreement was reached in Lesotho in 2019, when trade unions and women’s rights organizations reached a binding agreement with garment manufacturers and fashion brands to launch a comprehensive pilot programme to prevent gender-based violence in garment factories.
In Bangladesh, trade unions successfully advocated for the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Garment and Textile Industry (International Accord), which brought in better standards to protect workers from accidents like workplace fires. This agreement was reached in the wake of the devastating Rana Plaza factory disaster, which killed over 1,100 garment workers, many of them young women, in Dhaka. This preventable disaster put workplace safety and corporate negligence in the spotlight, and while enforceable and legally binding agreements like the International Accord are positive steps, the fight for justice and accountability is not yet won.
How can unions use collective bargaining to defend workers’ human rights?
The power of trade unions and collective bargaining cannot be understated. We are more powerful when we work together. When individual complaints and concerns are ignored, trade unions can shine a light on abuses and make sure those responsible are held to account.
When states and employers respect the right to unionize, they make it possible to realize a workplace where everyone benefits from honest and trusting negotiations between business leaders and their workers. To fulfil their human rights responsibilities, businesses should work with union members and representatives as allies in creating solutions to challenges.
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