Last week, Human Rights Watch issued a report, A Strange Case: Violations of Workers’ Freedom of Association in the United States by European Multinational Corporations, alleging to detail “ways in which some European multinational firms have carried out aggressive campaigns to keep workers in the United States from organizing and bargaining, violating international labor standards and, often, US labor laws.”  In response to a story about the report, representatives from the U.S. Chamber and the U.S. Council for International Business sent the following letter to the Financial Times:

The Human Rights Watch report referenced in your September 2 article “Groups attacked on US labour practice” reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of international labour standards and US labour law.

In the first instance, European Union labour laws do not define international labour standards. International Labour Organization conventions explicitly allow for different national approaches in their application. If you follow the logic of the HRW report, any country that does not apply EU labour law is in violation of international standards. This is sheer nonsense.

Second, US labour law is consistent with the principles and policy objectives that underpin the ILO’s fundamental labour rights. The fact that US and EU labour laws differ in technical details does not make US laws “weak”.

Finally, US labour law is clear that employees have a right to choose whether to join a labour union. There is no international standard against “discouraging workers from forming unions”. Indeed, the ILO recently held that an employer’s right to freedom of expression and opinion during union organising is consistent with the principles of freedom of association as they are defined internationally, and confirmed that employers have the right to provide employees with information that an employee can use to decide whether – or not – to join a union.

We anticipate publishing a more substantial response to the HRW report at a later date.