Workers' Rights

Our Workers' Rights project aids workers trying to organize for their rights at work and beyond.

On December 10, 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which includes the right to form a union and also many other workers' rights, such as just remuneration, rest and leisure, safety and health, and more.

The Right to Organize:

UDHR Article 20 (1):  Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

UDHR Article 23 (4):  Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of [their] interests.

The Springfield and Northampton City Councils have agreed with us that in order to secure these rights, employers must remain neutral.  The question to unionize or not is for their employees to decide without the employers expressing an opinion either pro or con. We recently asked Northampton employers to agree to employer neutrality and that "If a majority of our employees decide to bargain with us collectively, we will work to achieve a written labor agreement without undue delay."

The following Northampton employers have agreed!  Video of our April 6 2013 recognition event is here.
In addition, we honor these Northampton employers:
 
River Valley Market for recognizing United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1459 on February 10, 2012, after former Northampton Mayor Mary Clare Higgins conducted a card check (see below).
 
for its agreement with United Food & Commercial Workers that all new stores come under the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
 
for its neutrality agreement with Communications Workers of America (CWA) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW).
 
and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for enacting Majority Authorization, signed by Gov. Deval Patrick on September 7, 2007, at the Massachusetts AFL-CIO Convention in Marlborough. Public employees in Massachusetts have the ability to form a collective bargaining unit by achieving majority support in writing.
 
Majority sign-up (also known as “card check”) is an efficient, fair, and democratic organizing process whereby if a majority of employees sign cards to demonstrate their desire to form a union, then they are legally recognized as a union by the the employer and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).  Since 2003, more than half a million Americans have formed unions through majority sign-up, more than the number who formed unions using elections.  More at .