Going Global on Human Rights Day

“What we’re going to try to do in these next two days has never been done,” AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff told UNION CITY Monday morning at the "Going Global: Organizing, Recognition and Union Rights" conference. “We want to develop a common analysis of the crisis affecting workers all over the world, and understand that we’ve got to confront it collectively, not individually.” Flanked by flags from many nations, more than 200 labor activists and leaders from around the world filled the main hall on the first day of the 2-day "Going Global" conference, held at the National Labor College’s Kirkland Center on International Human Rights Day. The buzz at the international gathering of labor leaders – including both the AFL-CIO, which is hosting the event, and Change To Win – was palpable, as activists met and compared notes about the common challenges they face. A sobering presentation on declining union membership worldwide – what International Trade Union Confederation General Secretary Guy Ryder called a “harsh reality check” -- showed graphically that the United States lags far behind the rest of the world, with just 12% of American workers covered by collective bargaining contracts. As CWA President Larry Cohen pointed out, “When Human Rights Day was first begun in 1948, we were at the top of the list but today we’re at the bottom.”  Added John Logan, “It’s clear that the crisis is deeper in the U.S., which is at the forefront of the international scene, and what happens in the U.S. is affecting countries elsewhere.” Logan, who teaches at the London School of Economics, is “the foremost global authority on union-busting and the intellectual architect” of the conference, according to Acuff. Workers in the majority of ten major Western industrial nations, however, have the same problem, with 24% of Japanese workers organized, 32% in Canada, 35% in the United Kingdom, 36% in Brazil, 42% in South Africa and 50% in Australia (where the union movement last week helped unseat a conservative President). After laying out the bleak realities facing workers worldwide, Aidan White of the International Federation of Journalists conducted an open-mike session on the conference floor during which he interviewed labor activists from around the world, many of whom recounted stirring stories of organizing triumphs, as well as recognized the continuing obstacles by global employers. “The time is gone when we can generate purely national responses,” Ryder said, concluding the morning session, “the time for internationalism is here and now.” -Report by Chris Garlock