10-31-06, 9:45 p.m.

WASHINGTON (PAI) – Saying the ruling broke international compacts the U.S. signed, the AFL-CIO on Oct. 23 filed a formal case with the International Labour Organization contesting the National Labor Relations Board’s ruling declaring new groups of workers are supervisors. The federation wants not just a decision against the U.S. government, but a full-scale international investigation. In its 23-page complaint to the ILO, signed by federation President John J. Sweeney, the AFL-CIO said the ruling in Oakwood Health Care vs. UAW is part of a pattern of destruction of workers’ rights in the U.S. That breaks international norms,. “Oakwood strips employees in the new ‘supervisor’ status of any and all protection,” the AFL-CIO told the ILO’s Committee on Freedom of Association, which would investigate the complaint. Sweeney, in a statement, said “Bush has stripped millions of America's working people of a fundamental human right recognized all over the globe: The freedom to bargain collectively and have a voice on the job.' Among other things, “employers may fire” newly named ‘supervisors’ “with impunity if they do not relinquish union membership or if they participate in union activities. Employers can even force these employees, under pain of dismissal, to participate in management’s anti-union campaigns,” the federation pointed out. And it quoted internal memos from two notorious union-busters – which pose as law firms – as ready to encourage employers to classify workers as supervisors, removing them from labor law protection and opening them to management dictates. The federation wants the ILO to rule the Bush administration broke ILO conventions and the International Declaration of Human Rights. The U.S. signed the declaration, which includes the right to organize, but not some ILO conventions. But even if the federation wins, the ILO still lacks power to enforce its decision. That didn’t stop the federation, said counsel Deborah Greenfield, who drafted the legal papers. “We did it because we think it’s extremely important for U.S. actions during the Bush administration to be put in the context of international labor norms,” she said in an interview. “We do see a downward spiral of worker rights under the Bush NLRB and it is important to shine a spotlight on that. Part of what publicity does is to educate the public and keep momentum going for changes in labor laws,” she added. Rather than just rule on the legal papers and the Oakwood decision itself, the federation wants a special ILO fact-finding mission to the U.S. It would meet workers, employers, attorneys, and others to hear testimony on the ruling’s effect. “Its findings would be useful in dramatizing the need for change,” Greenfield explained.

From International Labor Communications Association