By James Parks

In hundreds of cities across the nation, workers will mark International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10 with a campaign to educate the public and build momentum to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. International Human Rights Day falls each year on the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which includes the freedom to form unions. This is the 60th anniversary of the declaration in 1948.

In Boston, representatives from a dozen community and labor organizations will gather to kick off a statewide campaign in support of the legislation, which would give workers a simple one-step process to freely choose a union. It also would strengthen penalties against companies that intimidate employees trying to form unions and provide for mediation and arbitration when employers and workers cannot agree on a first contract.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker says the Employee Free Choice Act is at the heart of helping to turn around our economy:

We know that whatever else we are able to achieve, we won’t create economic growth that is broadly shared unless we restore the freedom of working people to make their own decision to join a union and bargain with their employers for better wages and benefits for a better future for their children and the next generation. The centerpiece is passing the Employee Free Choice Act, which will make it easier for workers to join our unions, while making it harder for employers to interfere with the freedom of workers to organize. This is key to rebuilding the middle class.

In Miami, workers plan to leaflet at various sites around the city, explaining the links between human rights and workers’ rights.

The legislation is gaining strong support from many quarters, including the religious community. The Rev. Laurel Scott, a United Methodist minister in Boston, says the Employee Free Choice Act would help put our country back on the road to economic stability.

For people of faith, the dignity of workers, the dignity of work and the concept of workers as partners in production are concepts that up until recently were disregarded by our leaders.

The need for greater freedom to join unions is not limited to the United States. The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) just released Working for Scrooge: 5 Worst Companies for the Right to Associate, a list of the five worst multinational corporations for union organizing. The U.S.-based companies on the list use intimidation and even violence to violate their workers’ internationally recognized freedom to join a union, the ILRF says.

The companies on this year’s IRLF list include:

* Nestle, with violations in the Philippines, Colombia, Peru, Russia and Pakistan;

* Dole, with violations in the Philippines, Costa Rica and Colombia;

* Del Monte, with violations in Guatemala and the Philippines;

* Russell, a subsidiary of Fruit of the Loom, which has violated worker rights in Honduras and Uzbekistan; and

* Wal-Mart, with violations in the United States, Canada and elsewhere.

ILRF Executive Director Bama Athreya says:

As we commemorate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, consumers and labor rights advocates globally can support the human rights of workers by letting these companies know that they need to respect the right to organize.

To check out the list of companies and learn more about the End Violence Against Trade Unions campaign, click here.