Abstract
This chapter argues that recent efforts to reframe global labour rights as a species of human rights may seriously limit the capacity to rebuild trade unions and generate effective labour laws if not complemented by parallel attempts to equalize asymmetrical relationships between workers and employers inherent in contemporary capitalism. I argue that the limitations inherent in a human rights framework are manifest despite the fact that for certain issues, such as those pertaining to the civil and political rights of labour leaders and ordinary workers, a human rights frame may be very useful in generating popular support for union activists who are victimized by repressive regimes. I build my argument from the case of Chile, where a great international campaign, which the ILO was part of, against violations of human rights by the brutal dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet proved effective in saving many lives and releasing others from prison, but where, as detailed below, the campaign could not help to reestablish strong legal and institutional support for trade unionism and collective bargaining.
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Notes
K. Kolben, “Labor Rights as Human Rights?” Virginia Journal of International Law, 50 (2010), 449–84, 453.
B. Creighton. “The Future of Labour Law: Is There a Role for International Labour Standards?” in C. Barnard, S. Deakin, and G. S. Morris, eds., The Future of Labour Law (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2004), 253–74.
R. Blanpain et al., The Global Workplace: International and Comparative Employment Law Cases and Materials, 2nd edn. (New York: Kluwer Law & Business, 2012), 65.
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P. Alston, “Core Labour Standards and the Transformation of the International Labour Rights Regime,” European Journal of International Law, 15 (2004), 457–521, and see especially 458–59 and 519–21.
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See generally M. Olson, The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 1968).
P. Irrureta, “Regulación de la Libertad Sindical entre 1973 y 1990,” in E. Lira and H. Rojas, eds., Libertad sindical y Derechos Humanos: Análisis de los informes de Comité de Libertad Sindical de la OIT (1973–90) (Santiago: LOM Ediciones, 2009), 29–42.
As a political scientist, Lisa Hilbink describes, the recurso de queja under Chilean law permits a party to seek review of a lower court’s decision at the Supreme Court when there is “grave mistake or abuse” (faltas o abuso grave) in lower proceedings. Generally, the Supreme Court of Chile did not have (and continued to lack) ordinary review authority of labour court decisions. Therefore, the review capacity of the Supreme Court under the recurso de queja comes through a back alley, from the disciplinary powers that the Supreme Court ministros (justices) have over lower court judges. Important to underline, the extraordinary recurso de queja was the roundabout way that the employer bar sought review of labour court decisions shortly after labour courts were instituted in the country in the 1920s. Naturally, lower court judges greatly feared recurso de queja review as it may have led to both reversal of their decision and disciplinary sanctions against them. L. Hilbink, Judges Beyond Politics and Dictatorship: Lessons from Chile (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 65–66.
P. Winn, “The Pinochet Era,” in P. Winn, ed., Victims of the Chilean Miracle: Workers and Neoliberalism in the Pinochet Era, 1973–2002 (Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 2004), 14–70, 22.
H. Rojas, “Las Quejas ante el Comité de Libertad Sindical de la OIT durante el régimen militar,” in E. Lira and H. Rojas, eds., Libertad sindical y Derechos Humanos: Análisis de los informes de Comité de Libertad Sindical de la OIT (1973–90) (Santiago: LOM Ediciones, 2009), 53–104, 53.
ILO, Report of The Fact Finding and Conciliation Commission on Freedom of Association Concerning the Case of Chile, Governing Body 196th Session of the International Labour Conference (ILC), Geneva, May 1975, 1, 30, 108.
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E. Caamano Rojo and J. Luis Ugarte Cataldo, Negociaciôn Colectiva y Libertad Sindical: Un Enfoque Critico (Santiago: Legal Publishing, 2008), 25, citing F. Walker Errázuriz, Derecho de las Relaciones Laborales (Santiago: editorial Universitaria, 2003), 586.
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ILO, Freedom of Association, Digest of Decisions and Principles of the Freedom of Association Committee of the Governing Body of the ILO, 5th (revised) edn. (Geneva: ILO, 2006), para. 944.
See C. F. Rosado Marzán, “Punishment and Work Law Compliance: Lessons from Chile,” Hofstra Labor and Employment Law Journal, 29 (2012), 343–405, 394–99.
International Labour Conference, 101st Session, 2012, Report III — Information and Reports on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (Geneva: ILO, 2012), 104–07. ilo.org document site.
V. Frank, “Politics without Policy: The Failure of Social Concertation in Democratic Chile, 1990–2000,” in P. Winn, ed., Victims of the Chilean Miracle: Workers and Neoliberalism in the Pinochet Era, 1973–2002 (Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 2004), 71–124, 74–80.
R. Sandbrook, M. Richard, M. Edelman, P. Heller, and J. Teichman, Social Democracy in the Global Periphery: Origins, Challenges, Prospects (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 147–76.
C. Rojo and U. Cataldo 2008, 25; I. Rojas Miño, “La Experiencia Histórica de la Negociación Colectiva en Chile,” in Dirección del Trabajo, ed., Negociación Colectiva en Chile: Debilidad de un Derecho Imprescindible (Santiago: Dirección del Trabajo, 2010), 73–108, 91; S. Gamonal Contreras, Trabajo y Derecho (Legal Publishing: Santiago, 2010), 106–55.
S. Edwards, Left Behind: Latin America and the False Promise of Populism (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2010), 110–11.
H. Fazio. Mapa actual de la extrema riqueza en Chile (Santiago: LOM-Arcis: 1997): 7.
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Marzán, C.F.R. (2016). The Limits of Human Rights for Labour Rights: A Retrospective Look at the Case of Chile. In: Jensen, J.M., Lichtenstein, N. (eds) The ILO from Geneva to the Pacific Rim. International Labour Organization (ILO) Century Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137570901_10
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