Are worker rights human rights? 9780472070428, 0472070428, 9780472050420, 0472050427, 2008011490

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ADVANCES

IN HETERODOX

ECONOMICS

Fred S. Lee, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Series Editor Rob Garnett, Texas Christian University, Series Editor Over the past two decades, the intellectual agendas of heterodox economists have taken a decidedly pluralist turn. Leading thinkers have begun to move beyond the established paradigms of Austrian, feminist, institutional-evolutionary, Marxian, post-Keynesian, radical, social, and Sraffian economics—opening up new lines of analysis, criticism, and dialogue among dissenting schools of thought. This crossfertiliezation of ideas is creating a new generation of scholarship in which novel combinations of heterodox ideas are being brought to bear on important contemporary and historical problems. Advances in Heterodox Economics aims to promote this new scholarship by publishing innovative books in heterodox economic theory, policy, philosophy, intellectual history, institutional history, and pedagogy. Syntheses or critical engagements of two or more heterodox traditions are especially encouraged. The editor and associate editors work closely with individual authors to ensure the quality of all published works.

Economics in Real Time: A Theoretical Reconstruction John McDermott

Socialism after Hayek Theodore A. Burczak Future Directions for Heterodox Economics John T. Harvey and Robert F. Garnett, Jr., editors

Are Worker Rights Human Rights? Richard P. McIntyre

Are Worker Rights Human Rights? RICHARD

P. MCINTYRE

The University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor

Copyright © by the University of Michigan 2008 \

All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by

The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America @ Printed on acid-free paper

2011

2010

2009

2008

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No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or

otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data McIntyre, Richard P., 1955—

Are worker rights human rights? / Richard P. McIntyre. p.

cm.—

(Advances in heterodox economics)

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-472-07042-8 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-472-07042-8 (cloth : alk. paper) iSBN-13: 978-0-472-05042-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-472-05042-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Employee rights.

legislation. HD6971.8.M38

331.01'1—dc22

2. Labor—Standards.

4. Human rights.

3. Labor laws and

I. Title.

2008

2008011490

CONTENTS

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Preface and Acknowledgments

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CHAPTER 1. Class, Convention, and Worker Rights CHAPTER 2. Class, Convention, and Economics

CHAPTER 3. Not Only Nike Is Doing It

1 13

33

CHAPTER 4. Are Worker Rights Human Rights (and does it matter if they are)?

53

CHAPTER 5. The International Organization of Worker Rights and Labor Standards 80 CHAPTER 6. The United States and Core Worker Rights: Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining 103 CHAPTER 7. The New Factory Inspectors

CHAPTER 8. Think Locally, Act Globally

Notes

179

References Index

195 209

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43-45 47-49»

possible remedy for, 51-52

unfair competition, 94 UNICCO, 41-42 union activists, 123, 125 unionization, 6, 41-42, 98, 154-55, 175 in developing-country context, 84, 99

Wal-Mart and, 165, 168

unions, 25, 65, 77, 88, 154-55, 161

192n2 immigrant labor and, 49 internal, 165

sweatshops, 10, 33, 37, 74, 150, 171-72 Bush administration and, 2, 132 new factory inspectors and, 149

See also antisweatshop movement sweatshop workers, 175-77 Sweeney, John, 120

sympathy, 46—48, 182n6 Taft-Hartley Amendment, 109-10, 122 Taiwan, 36 TEAM Act, 122 technology, 174

temporary employment agencies, 1, 11, 38-40

temporary work situations, vii textbooks, 24-26, 31, 37, 50, 184n6 Thailand, 105 Theory of Moral Sentiments, The (Smith), 12, 46

Thompson, E. P., 30 Thurow, Lester, 25 Tobin, Maurice, 118 Town Dock, 1, 38-40, 42—43, 165, 183n7

moral appeals and, 47, 49

unemployment, 51

in Asia, 192n15 European, 192n14

U.S. labor policy and, 125 See also trade unions United Nations, 106, 109 United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, 109-10 United States, viii, 74-78, 101—2, 104, 110-15,

130-31 African American progress in, 69 capitalist excesses in, 169-70 collective rights not protected in, 121, 127-28, 153, 174

core labor rights compromised in, 83-84 deterioration of worker rights in, 82 early involvement in the ILO, 108-10 economic integration in, 80

emergence of capitalism in, 22 federal structure of, 12, 107, 108, 118, 125

foreign policy of, 12, 20, 60, 120, 127-28, 131, 132, 171 history of labor standards in, 140 human rights discourse in, 131-32 individual rights recognized in, 94

Index Institutional tradition in, 5—6, 19 international labor policy of, 104, 131-32 international labor standards and, 103, 127

labor policy of, 11, 101, 107, 119, 121-25, 128 labor reform in twentieth century, 165 labor rights in, 152-53, 185n13 Marxism in, 24

neoclassical theory in, 62

221

Veblen, Thorstein, 5, 10, 62 >

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Vietnam, 36-37, 111, 137, 19215 violence, 21, 95 wage bargains, 43-44, 48, 50-51, 87, 89, 170

sweating system and, 33-34 Wal-Mart and, 165, 169 wage gap, 82

organized working class in, 163-64 resurgence of the labor problem in, 150

wage laborers, 22

rights politics in, 54 sweatshop worker tours in, 175-77

Wagner Act, 77, 170 Wal-Mart, 159, 164-71, 176, 184n12

trade agreements in, 141

Bush administration praise of, 193n7 human resource strategies of, 193n6 war on terrorism, 120

victories for rights in, 60 women’s movement in, 21 women workers in, 146 United States Constitution, 74 United States Council for International Business (USCIB), 77, 104, 119, 189n15

United States Labor Department, 101, 130, 185n13

United States ratification of ILO conventions, 11-12, 83, 103-33

arguments against, 107-8, 115-19, 123 Cold War conflict and, 11-15

conventions ratified by the U.S., 106 debate over conventions no. 87 & 98,

121-23, 125-29, 132 ILO core standards and, 120-21 to the mid-1980s, 108-12

official position of U.S. on, 104, 106-7 Opposition to, 117 United States State Department, 53 United States Supreme Court, 77, 85, 188nt0

United States Treasury, 61, 101, 130 United Students Against Sweatshops, 12, 150 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 67—68, 110, 183n1, 184n10

Unocal, 60 urbanization, 142

USCIB. See United States Council for International Business (USCIB) US. Steel, 169 USSR. See Soviet Union

utilitarianism, 18, 57, 59, 60, 61-62, 97 utopianism, 28 vagrancy laws, 22 Vanity Fair, 156

wage standard, 159

Washington Consensus, 61, 62, 96, 99-100

West Coast Hotel v. Parrish (1937), 85 White, Harry Dexter, 99

White Stag, 176 Williams, Eric, 72-73 Wisconsin Industrial Commission, 88

Wolfowitz, Paul, 99 women workers, 38, 108, 146, 158, 181n1

legislation for, 140, 141 worker alienation, 164, 170 worker rights, 1-2, 11, 56-57, 90-95, 135-37, 179n6

child labor and, 142 class and convention and, 30

class background of reformers, 161 class interest and, 8—9

contemporary international organization of, 178 enforcement of by U.S. government, 101-2 Factory Acts and, 138 globalization and, 6, 175 heterodox economics and, 7

human rights organizations and, 75 individualism in, 131

international agreements and, 100-102 labor market regulation and, 163 of the late twentieth century, 140-41 Marxism and, 10, 45 new factory inspectors and, 164 public relations and, 160 socialism and, 56

study of, 4 trade agreements and, 186n3 undermined by WB/IMF, 96-97, 99-100

INDEX

222

worker rights (continued) in United States, viii, 74-78, 82, 104, 130-31

See also labor rights Worker Rights as Human Rights (Gross, ed.),

151-52 Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), 12, 129,

135, 149-51, 153-60, 177, 19214 factory reports of, 153-56

relationship with corporations, 159-60 worker rights regime, 71

working rules, 50-51, 86-88, 90, 92, 101, 167

Seealso labor standards works councils, 110 World Bank, 11, 95-100, 101, 130, 159 Worldcom,169 World Trade Organization (WTO), 85,

\

100-102, 129

1999 Seattle meeting of, 2, 103, 161 World War II, 56, 71

capital mobility and, 98

Worldwide Responsible Apparel Certification Program, 158

child labor and, 145 defeat of in U.S., 163

Young, Andrew, 36

working class, 6, 22, 31-32, 84, 147-48, 150

factory inspectors and, 98 working-rule adjustments, 88

Zemin, Jiang, 131

ADVANCES

IN HETERODOX

ECONOMICS

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ISBN-13: ISBN-10:

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