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Over the past twenty years, International Labour Standards have been cited increasingly as the authoritative, worldwide body of jurisprudence on workers' rights as human rights. Continuing the debate on what constitutes labor rights, the author contrasts the definition of workers' rights under international human rights standards with U.S. labor history's notion of “pure and simple unionism,” examining the boundaries of rights defined by international standards in a comparative historical context. The standards examined include workers' right to organize; coercive employer speech; access to employer premises; nonmajority representation; the right to strike, picket, and boycott; union security clauses; the scope of bargaining; government enforcement; and the legal doctrine of employer association rights. Aligning U.S. labor relations law with international human rights standards would in part be a social advancement, but significant aspects of the standards advocate pure and simple unionism more than the original National Labor Relations Act, raising questions about how labor movements should use international standards as advocacy tools and public policy goals.
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As the labor movement refocuses its commitment to organizing, it is turning increasingly toward organizing in communities of color. We know from quantitative research that workers of color are more likely to organize and are concentrated in low-wage industries that are more sus ceptible to organizing. Despite major victories such as Justice for Janitors in Los Angeles and a string of victories by UNITE in the South, unions have much to learn about organizing in communities of color. This article is an in-depth analysis of UNITE's victory among predominantly El Salvadoran workers at the Richmark plant in Everett, Massachusetts. It is based on interviews with union staff, community activists, and workers at the Richmark plant. Given its unusual circumstances, Richmark is in many ways not a model for organizing. Yet there are important lessons to be learned from the Richmark victory that extend beyond this Everett- based plant and inform organizing in communities of color. First, UNITE did not just enter the El Salvadoran community for this campaign but already had a presence in the community. Second, UNITE organizers recognized and nurtured the rank-and-file leadership that emerged. And, finally, the organizers and staff at UNITE were flexible, adapting both to the situation and to the workers at Richmark. While schooled in a specific model of organizing, they were able to look beyond those models and emerged victorious.
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