Right to Oorganize Trade Unions is a Fundamental Human Right.

"Collective Bargaining -- Essential to Democracy."
by Bruce T. Boccardy in MRZINE. April 11, 2011.


Collective bargaining was an integral component of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act. Prior to the law, employers could literally spy upon union members, interrogate, punish, blacklist, and terminate them without just cause. The Act clearly asserts the rights of collective bargaining in Section 7:

Employees shall have the right to self-organization; to form, join, or assist labor organizations; to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing; and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.

This language was affirmed by Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, which identified the right to organize trade unions again as a fundamental human right.

Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.