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The Law of Work
Law of Work Archive

Should Labour Rights Be Treated as Human Rights?

by David Doorey March 5, 2009
written by David Doorey March 5, 2009

There is a very interesting debate in the recent edition of the New Labor Forum that includes Lance Compa of Cornell and Jay Youngdahl, an American labor lawyer.  They are debating whether labour rights — the right to form unions, engage in collective bargaining, strike, etc.–should be framed as human rights.  Both writers are supporters of the labour movement and strong labour rights, but they differ on whether associating labour rights (often considered to be ‘collective’ rights) with human rights (often considered to be ‘individual’ rights) is likely to advance the interests of workers.
Here is the debate  from New Labor Forum (thanks to New Labor Forum and Lance Compa for giving us permission to publish this on the blog)
A similar debate is taking place in Canada. Roy Adams is a leading academic arguing in favour of treating labour rights as human rights, in which he is supported by the ongoing campaign by NUPGE and the UFCW.  Others, including Larry Savage of Brock University, have questioned the approach.  You can access the papers in the debate between Adams and Savage that were published in Just Labour here.
Do you think labour rights should be treated as “human rights”?  Do you think the debate matters?  Why, or why not?

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David Doorey

Professor Doorey is an Associate Professor of Work Law and Industrial Relations at York University. He is Academic Director of Osgoode Hall Law School’s executive LLM Program in Labour and Employment Law and a Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program. Professor Doorey is a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School (LL.B., Ph.D), London School of Economics (LLM Labour Law), and the University of Toronto (B.A., M.I.R.).

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