Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal

On the international stage the United States has promised to "respect, to promote and to realize in good faith" a set of workers' human rights which include the right to bargain collectively. Although American policy permits most workers to bargain it does not promote bargaining as the international consensus requires. Instead, by making collective bargaining contingent upon the decision to join or refrain from joining a trade union American policy ensures that bargaining will be denied to most American workers. The denial of collective bargaining is, from the perspective of the international human rights consensus, the moral equivalent of apartheid and slavery. The article reviews international developments and considers steps the U.S. might take to bring its domestic policies in line with its international commitments.