22 February 2011

Collective bargaining is a human right

The Wisconsin grassroots continue to make an impact, as thousands have camped out for days in and around the Capitol in Madison to protest Governor Scott Walker's union-busting budget bill.

Walker says the state's budget cannot afford union negotiations. (And why is that? It's so that Wisconsin's richest residents won't have to pay their fair share of taxes.)

What Walker either will not or cannot recognize is that collective bargaining is a human right, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), to which the United States is a signatory.

Article 23(4) of the UDHR states: "Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests."

Unions protect the workers from corporate and bureaucratic tyranny.

And that, I suspect, is one big reason why the Republicans are so against them.

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