The September report looks at overall union popularity in the US (at a 50 year high right now, although membership still low, more on AI; overwork in public hospitals – this time in Korea but a similar story the world over, cooperatives as a way forward for migrant workers in the US, wage theft and leisure, and the closing loopholes laws; plus strategies for workers needed now.
Resources
- Global Rights Index
- Unions Need Both Democracy and Strong Leadership
- Debt Is Wage Theft, Debt Steals Leisure Time, Debt Can Suppress Strikes: Debt Is a Labor Issue
- Australians now have the right to disconnect – but how workplaces react will be crucial
- FWC page captures Closing Loopholes’ “new laws”
- Six months into junior doctor walkout, Korea’s overworked nurses declare strike
- Trade union strategies on artificial intelligence and collective bargaining on algorithms
- Digital Transformation of Workplaces: Submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training Inquiry
- Worker Co-ops: A Pathway to Good Jobs for Immigrant Workers
- The State of American Labor on Labor Day
- US Union support – Gallup POLL
Global Rights Index
Jamal Elaheebocus
Now in its 11th year, the Global Rights Index offers an important status report on the worldwide struggle to defend and exercise core pillars of democracy: the fundamental rights and freedoms of working people and trade unions.
As it attests, there are clear signs that governments and companies are accelerating their efforts to trample on these basic rights that underpin the very nature of democracy and the rule of law.
The right to free speech and assembly was restricted in 43% of countries, up from 42% in 2023.
74% of countries impeded the registration of trade unions, up from 73% in 2023.
Workers were detained or arrested in 74 countries, a leap from 69 in 2023.
The right to strike was violated in 87% of countries, unchanged from 2023.
In 75% of countries, workers were denied the right to establish or join a trade union, a small improvement from 2023 when 77% were excluded from this fundamental right.
79% of countries violated the right to collective bargaining, unchanged from 2023.
Workers had no or restricted access to justice in 65% of countries, unchanged from 2023.
Workers in 44 countries experienced some form of violent attacks.
Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific remained the second-worst region for workers’ rights, with an average rating of 4.13 – a negligible improvement on 2023. About nine in 10 countries across the region excluded workers from the right to establish or join a trade union, violated the right to strike and impeded the registration of unions.
Unions Need Both Democracy and Strong Leadership
An interview with Ruth Milkman by Benjamin Y. Fong
A common view of the two major US labor federations of the 20th century is that the AFL was top-down while the CIO was bottom-up. In truth, the CIO’s success was owed to a potent mix of rank-and-file militancy and strategic leadership.
The CIO first formed as a committee within the American Federation of Labor, or the AFL, in 1935. It was called the Committee for Industrial Organization, and later it broke away from the AFL and formed a separate organization, the Congress of Industrial Organizations. It was a group of unions that decided it was time to organize on an industrial basis rather than an occupational basis, as most AFL unions had traditionally done. So following a lot of changes in the economy, the way in which companies were organized, and the de-skilling of work that led to the possibility of mass production on assembly lines, the old-fashioned way of organizing people based on their occupational or craft group made less and less sense.
It’s not that the CIO leaders were the first to figure that out. There were lots of experiments with industrial unionism prior to the 1930s, but at this point in the middle of the Depression, and in a period when labor law was changing in a way that was beneficial to union organizing, a bunch of labor leaders decided this was the moment for change.
Debt Is Wage Theft, Debt Steals Leisure Time, Debt Can Suppress Strikes: Debt Is a Labor Issue
A conversation with organizers across industries on how debt shapes the fight for worker power.
Jason Wozniak, Sara Nelson, Brittany Alston, Olivia Schwob, Jackson Potter and Teresa Romero
When labor is weak and unionization low, workers are forced to take on debt to offset costs for necessities like healthcare, housing and food. The more debt we have, the more we are compelled to work under the bosses’ conditions — rather than fighting for our own.
Interest-heavy loans act as a regressive kind of pay cut, reaching deep into workers’ take-home earnings. Just to keep up with debt payments and interest, workers take on more hours and multiple low-paying jobs.
And data shows debt can make workers more unlikely to strike.
Philly Black Worker Project
Australians now have the right to disconnect – but how workplaces react will be crucial
Emmanuel Josserand and Martijn Boersma
We now have the right to disconnect from work.
This entails the right to refuse to read or respond to work-related calls, texts and emails outside their working hours, unless that refusal is unreasonable.
The Fair Work Commission says what will matter is whether the refusal is unreasonable, rather than whether the attempted contact is unreasonable.
Among the things that will determine whether a refusal is unreasonable are the employee’s role, their personal circumstances, the method and reason for the contact, how much disruption it causes them and whether they are compensated for being available or for working additional hours.
From today, Monday August 26, many employees in Australia get a new right, called the right to disconnect from work.
This entails the right to refuse to read or respond to work-related calls, texts and emails outside their working hours, unless that refusal is unreasonable.
The Fair Work Commission says what will matter is whether the refusal is unreasonable, rather than whether the attempted contact is unreasonable.
Among the things that will determine whether a refusal is unreasonable are the employee’s role, their personal circumstances, the method and reason for the contact, how much disruption it causes them and whether they are compensated for being available or for working additional hours.
Those working for small businesses (with fewer than 15 employees) get the right to disconnect in August 2025.
As with any changes to conditions of employment, it has sparked heated debate.
Supporters say the right to disconnect is needed to slow the encroachment of work into personal life. Opponents say it will harm productivity and flexibility.
Fortunately, we’ve clues from overseas to guide us.
France was the first country to introduce a right to disconnect in 2017, followed by Belgium, Italy, Argentina, Chile, Luxembourg, Mexico, Philippines, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Ontario in Canada, and Ireland.
An analysis of these laws and their impact, which we are preparing for the Journal of Industrial Relations, finds that while they can improve work-life balance and wellbeing, their success depends on how they are implemented and enforced within each workplace.
Employers that take right to disconnect laws seriously offer more compensation to those who are interrupted than companies that don’t, in the form of pay or time off in lieu. Unpaid overtime is significantly more common in companies without a right to disconnect policy.
In the countries that have a right to disconnect, only about 45% of workers say they are aware of it being offered in their workplace, and only about half of them say they are aware of actions to enforce it.
FWC page captures Closing Loopholes’ “new laws”
Workplace Express reports:
The FWC has published a one-stop website explaining the “significant” changes to its powers wrought by new IR laws that take effect today.
The New Laws webpage provides explainers, information sheets, videos and animations about the Commission’s new jurisdictions for disconnect rights, casual-to-permanent disputes, sham contracting protections, unfair deactivation from digital platforms, regulated road transport workers, delegates’ rights and disputes about unfair contract terms for independent contractors.
The tribunal’s expanded role flows from Fair Work Act amendments made under this year’s Closing Loopholes 2 Act.
The webpage builds upon the Commission’s The Closing Loopholes Act – what’s changing page, which will remain as a record of related news and updates up to August 26.
Applications under the various new jurisdictions can be initiated using the FWC’s forms page.
Six months into junior doctor walkout, Korea’s overworked nurses declare strike
Health care workers at 61 hospitals nationwide announced plans for a strike starting Thursday, prompting fears of an even greater interruption to medical services in the country.
Nurses and other health care workers who have been filling the gap left by interns and residents following their exodus from training hospitals have now announced plans to launch a general strike this Thursday.
Observers are worrying that this strike could have a huge impact on treatment and surgeries as it compounds the staffing shortage that has been afflicting health care settings for over half a year already.
Nurses and other staff members who perform essential services in emergency rooms and intensive care units will not be taking part in the action.
Between Aug. 19 and 23, the Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union (KHMU), which includes nurses and medical technicians among its members, held a vote on a strike at 61 hospitals. The union announced Saturday that 91% of those who voted were in favor.
A total of 24,257 of the 29,705 union members at the 61 workplaces cast their votes, representing a participation rate of 81.66%. Of that number, 22,101 (91.11%) voted in favor of a general strike.
Trade union strategies on artificial intelligence and collective bargaining on algorithms
Atahualpa Blanchet
The growing use of algorithmic management tools has led to profound changes in labour relations. These systems, based on artificial intelligence (AI), are deployed not only to increase productivity within companies and institutions but also to strengthen managerial power through sophisticated technological instruments for the digital monitoring of work activities.
Algorithmic management systems collect personal data and, in some cases, can analyse workers’ behaviour and emotions, affecting labour relations, by handling hiring processes, the distribution of tasks, the monitoring and control of workers, performance assessment and decisions on promotions and dismissals, be they individual or collective.
The lack of transparency regarding algorithmic programming criteria applied in the world of work is steadily giving rise to a growing imbalance between workers’ level of knowledge (about the handling of the digital data collected) and that of the decision makers in the work environment (who use these tools to obtain consolidated information and analyses on matters that affect and control work relations).
Beyond the implications in terms of respect for the principles enshrined in national and international regulatory instruments, such as transparency and explainability, tackling algorithmic discrimination (due to biases of various kinds) requires collective, coordinated and strategic action by the labour movement.
Digital Transformation of Workplaces: Submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training Inquiry
Fiona Macdonald and Lisa Heap
Centre for Future Work
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the way we work and the jobs we do. AI innovations in workplaces can have positive benefits, including through productivity gains. However, AI applications can also have significant risks for workers and for job quality.
AI applications, including automated decision making, are not neutral processes. Software can be designed and used to assist workers by augmenting their capacity and freeing up time for more meaningful or creative work. Or it can be designed and used in ways that intensify work and displace workers.
International evidence shows the use of AI in workplaces for managing workers and work processes is extending and intensifying long-standing efficiency-driven logics that result in reduced autonomy and control and intensify work, undermining job quality and worker wellbeing. Even when designed for benevolent purposes, unintended consequences can arise from the adoption of AI in workplaces. These include serious breaches of privacy, bias and discrimination in recruitment and hiring, and unfair decision-making in performance measurement and evaluation.
In this submission we argue that the promotion of AI innovation must not overshadow objectives and principles for decent jobs and fairness at work. We set out principles for new laws to regulate the uses of AI in workplaces with a goal of protecting workers.
Read the full submission here.
Worker Co-ops: A Pathway to Good Jobs for Immigrant Workers
Tareq Saghie
In some areas in the USA, cooperatives provide a possible secure future for migrant workers.
How can immigrants without work authorization avoid being hyper-exploited, and instead find work where they have some autonomy and collective power to raise standards? A movement that has been incubating in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, might offer some answers.
Sunset Park boasts one of the highest concentrations of worker cooperatives in the United States.
This business model, brought to the neighborhood by the Center for Family Life, guarantees all members standard and legal wages, a voice in their company’s governance, and control over their schedules.
“We don’t ask anything about your legal status nor your religion. We want members who want to work,” said Margarita Vasquez, of Mexico, founding member and elected president of Beyond Care Childcare Cooperative.
As New York City struggles to accommodate an influx of people prohibited from employment, worker coops present a way to earn a livable income and build wealth.
The State of American Labor on Labor Day
Bernie Sanders
As we celebrate Labor Day, 2024, there is some very good news.
Public approval of labor unions, at 70%, is higher today than it has been in decades. Over the last year major unions like the UAW have won some highly publicized strikes, while many other unions have negotiated trail-blazing contracts for their members. Young people at Starbucks and on college campuses are now more involved in labor organizing than ever before.
“…progressive concepts are “radical.” While they are opposed by the Big Money interests and marginalized by the corporate media and the political establishment, they are strongly supported by a majority of the American people. Most of these ideas, in one form or another, are already in place in other wealthy countries around the world.
So, on this Labor Day, let us redouble our efforts to grow trade unionism in America and create the kind of grassroots movement we need to take on the power of the Oligarchy.”
US Union support – Gallup POLL
Popular support for labor unions is now at its highest point since the 1960s, according to Gallup, at 70%, after falling to only 48% after the corporate and bank bailouts of Obama’s first months in office. The union disapproval rating, currently at 23%, hasn’t been this low since 1967.
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