Documents Compa, Lance 11 results

"Les entreprises européennes qui proclament respecter les principes du droit international du travail oublient trop souvent les engagements qui en découlent lorsque leurs salariés employés aux États-Unis exercent leur droit de liberté syndicale. En raison notamment des lacunes du droit américain et de son application, les employeurs européens implantés aux États-Unis lancent des campagnes agressives d'ingérence, d'intimidation et de coercition, en vue de briser les tentatives salariales d'organisation et de négociation collective. C'est notamment le cas de deux entreprises françaises Saint-Gobain et Sodexo qui feront l'objet de notre étude."

"Au cours du dernier quart de siècle, les sociétés multinationales basées en Europe ont intensifié leurs investissements directs étrangers dans les États du sud des États-Unis. Dans leurs pays d'origine, ces entreprises européennes qui investissent dans le sud américain respectent généralement les normes internationales en matière de liberté d'association et de négociation collective. Pourtant, dans leurs opérations du sud des États-Unis, certaines entreprises lancent des campagnes antisyndicales agressives et s'opposent à la négociation collective lorsque les travailleurs forment des syndicats. Il s'agit d'un échec de la diligence raisonnable dont les entreprises devraient répondre"

"A transatlantic trade agreement between the United States and the European Union must contain a strong labor chapter protecting workers' rights and social standards. Any agreement should aim to reduce inequality by ensuring that benefits of expanded trade flow to everyone, not only to wealthy elites. To this end, a labor chapter should prevent the us-style deregulation and anti-trade union practices from penetrating Europe. Moreover, any investor-state provision should not allow investors to challenge labor laws and social protection measures. In sum, a transatlantic trade agreement must create a dynamic of upward harmonization of standards, not a race to the bottom."

"Multinational corporations exercise power in the United States by integrating themselves into the US economic and legal systems, not by interfering with them. Firms take advantage of the relatively deregulated labour market in the United States and its ‘at-will' employment relations, compared with ‘just cause' requirements elsewhere. Many multinational companies also adopt US management-style behaviour towards trade unions, notwithstanding their publicly declared support for global norms on workers' freedom of association. They exploit US labour laws that violate international standards and interfere with trade union formation. Case studies examine several examples of this ‘when in Rome' anti-union phenomenon. At the same time, some counter-examples of companies that adhere to ILO core standards are offered. The conclusion contains recommendations for securing multinational companies' respect for workers' freedom of association in the United States, including application of ILO core standards, UN Guiding Principles, OECD Guidelines and Global Framework Agreements."

"Most trade unionists were oblivious to international human rights movement in the last half of the twentieth century. For their part, human rights advocates did not include workers' rights on their agenda. But in the late 1990s, labor and human rights advocates came together to reframe workers' collective action as a human rights mission rather than a self-interested syndical action. A new labor–human rights alliance built a wide-ranging discourse of workers' rights as human rights. The expertise and knowledge attributable to human rights actors gave their critique of workers' rights violations in the U.S. a high measure of authoritativeness compared with trade unionists making the same claims.Critics suggest that a human rights frame moves away from a class analysis, de-emphasizing principles of industrial democracy and mass action in favor of individual rights. This article argues that a human rights argument can help win needed labor law reform to protect workers' rights."