A 2007 decision by the ILO sustained a complaint filed by the United Electrical Workers against the State of North Carolina for its prohibition on collective bargaining for public employees. The ILO called on the United States to "promote the establishment of a collective bargaining framework in the public sector in North Carolina," and called specifically for the repeal of North Carolina General Statute 95-98, the state law that prohibits public employee collective bargaining. Currently pending before the ILO is a complaint filed by Transport Workers Local 100 challenging New York State's "Taylor Law," which prohibits strikes by public sector employees.

Finally, as a result of many years of advocacy on the part of human rights and labor groups, the "violation of internationally recognized labor rights" is now typically included as a prohibition in trade agreements that the United States enters into with other nations.

So while anti-labor forces in the United States have chastised Democrats in the Wisconsin Senate for leaving the state as an anti-democratic move, in truth these Senators are serving as the last line of defense of internationally recognized human rights and, therefore, of democracy.

Recent polls indicate that a clear majority of the American people support collective bargaining rights -- not because they belong to unions, which most do not, but because it is a simple issue of fairness and democracy.

It was not too long ago that both Republicans and Democrats used the lack of bargaining rights in the former Soviet Union as clear evidence of totalitarianism. What does it say about today's Republican Governors that they are making the elimination of collective bargaining their signature issue?

===

I would like to thank Dominick Tuminaro, Esq., for his assistance in preparing this article.

[Greg Tarpinian is the President of The Tarpinian Group, which provides unions with customized strategic and communications options for a wide variety of International labor unions. Prior to the formation of the Tarpinian Group in 2009, he was the founding Executive Director of the Change to Win labor federation. For the 25 years prior to that he was the Executive Director of the Labor Research Association, and President of LRA Consulting.

His articles have appeared in major newspapers from the Wall Street Journal to the Los Angeles Times. He is quoted as an expert source in newspapers from Barron's to the New York Times. He is also a frequent guest on labor and economics issues for a wide variety of American network news programs including the CBS Evening News, CNBC, CNN, the NBC's Today Show and many others.]