Reflecting on the denial of human rights in the workplace, people of faith will stand with workers at events and hearings in cities across the country on June 24. The day of action is designed to call attention to the fierce hostility workers face when they try to join together with co-workers to seek a voice for justice in the workplace. Justice applies not only in our personal relationships, but in our corporate relationships as well. And a fundamental voice for justice in the workplace is a union.
Workers face increasing difficulties exercising their right to organize.
Fifty percent of all employers threaten to eliminate all the workers' jobs if they join together in a union. Workers who choose to go on strike because they can't reach a contract agreement can be permanently replaced. Within the industrialized world, U.S. workers face the worst labor laws and the most hostile, anti-union business climate. Given the number of workers who get fired for organizing, the chilling effect it has overall on workers' organizing, and given the extensive delays and challenges to elections that companies routinely use to discourage workers from organizing, it is a clear denial of human rights in the workplace. According to a recent survey, nearly 50 percent of all working Americans who are not currently represented by unions would vote to join a union if they had the opportunity to do so without risking their jobs.