Undermining Democracy: Worker Repression in the United States

David Bonior is the chair of American Rights at Work, a Washington D.C.-based organization that advocates for the freedom of workers to organize unions and bargain collectively with employers. He also serves as University Professor of Labor Studies at Wayne State University. Bonior is a former Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, to which he was elected from Michigan. When he retired at the end of 2002, he had held the position of Democratic Whip, the second ranking Democrat in the House, for 10 years.

Multinational Monitor: Why are unionization rates so low in the U.S. private sector and higher in the public sector?
David Bonior: There’s been a chipping away at the basic 1935 National Labor Relations Act to the detriment of working people. The law was established to allow them to form unions and to protect them in that endeavor. Since 1935, however, those protections have been eroded. MORE >>

No Choices: Australia's Unions Confront Labor Law "Reform"

On March 27, Australia’s new labor law, known as Work Choices, went into effect.

On March 31, Rhonda Walke, a medical receptionist in Sydney with more than 20 years employment at a small doctor’s office, was fired. Her offense: seeking to negotiate the terms of a new contract her employer sought to impose. Under Australia’s old labor rules, Walke would have been able to win reinstatement. Under Work Choices, because the doctor’s office employs fewer than 100 workers, she is out of luck — unfair dismissal provisions don’t apply. MORE >>

Mexican Miners Rise Up: The Explosive Dispute Over Privatization

Nacozar, Sonora, Mexico — Just days after conservative candidate Felipe Calderon declared himself the winner of Mexico’s July 2 presidential election, the country’s federal labor board lowered the boom on striking miners.
        At Nacozari, one of the world’s largest copper mines just a few miles south of Arizona, 1,400 miners have been on strike since March 24. On July 12, the board said they’d abandoned their jobs, and gave the mine’s owner, Grupo Mexico, permission to close down operations.
        Under Mexican labor law, a company must stop production during a legal strike. The use of strikebreakers is illegal, and no enterprise can close down for good while workers are on strike. By ruling that there was no legal stoppage, and that Grupo Mexico could therefore close the mine, the board gave the company a legal pretext to fire every miner. MORE >>

Giving Workers the Business: World Bank Support for Labor Deregulation

A living wage, modest restraints on working hours and rules requiring notice be given before workers are fired all interfere with the “ease of doing business,” according to a leading World Bank report.
        The Bank’s annual Doing Business report — the institution’s highest circulation publication — considers countries that establish minimum wages above a certain very low level, set maximum hours of work at levels respecting international labor conventions, or require any advance notice for dismissal or specific procedures for job termination to have rules that hinder their investment friendliness, and it ranks these countries below countries with inferior worker protections. Countries can improve their rank when they do away with these and various other kinds of labor regulations. MORE >>