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UNI Global Union today said there is no truth to claims from a group representing US corporations that the US Employee Free Choice Act contravenes any standards set by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).



“When it passes the Employee Free Choice Act, the US Congress will be bringing the country closer to meeting ILO standards and the standards in every other civilised nation on Earth,” said UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings. “These claims to the contrary from the US Chamber of Commerce, which represents the interests of big business, are hogwash.”



The US Chamber of Commerce, which is spending millions to defeat the legislation, falsely claimed that provisions that would let American workers sign cards to join a union-- a common practice in most countries in the world-- do not meet the ILO’s standard for membership. Among other inaccuracies, it also misstated the ILO’s preference for secret ballot union elections.



" ‘Objective verification’ of a union's representative status is indeed the international standard, but there is no requirement or even a "preference" for a secret ballot under international labor standards,” said Lance Compa, a Senior Lecturer at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations in Ithaca, New York, where he teaches U.S. labor law and international labor rights.



Compa says that signing cards, also knows as card check, is “in full compliance with ILO principles.”



The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) blasted the Chamber of Commerce for trying to politicise the work of the ILO.



“If this crude move by the US employers to capture the ILO’s authority was not bad enough, any objective reading of ILO standards and case law exposes their misleading arguments,” said Guy Ryder, the ITUC’s general secretary.



A number of prominent US labour experts have said that the proposed US legislation is necessary to bring US labour policies up to the level of industrialised countries. The US has one of the worst rankings on union and workers’ rights in the world. The only country that consistently scores lower for union rights is Colombia, where thousands of union activists have been killed for their work.



“In a series of decisions over the past decade, the ILO’s Committee on Freedom of Association has consistently expressed concern over the failure of the National Labor Relations Act to adequately protect American workers’ right to choose a union and engage in collective bargaining,” said John Logan, Research Director, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, University of California, Berkeley. “It has never suggested that EFCA-style majority sign up and first contract mediation and arbitration provisions violate any ILO conventions. For the Chamber of Commerce and U.S. Council for International Business to suggest that it has is laughable.”



When it is passed by the US Congress, the Employee Free Choice Act will give US workers a fair chance to join unions and collectively bargain without fear of management retaliation. UNI is supporting a coalition of US workers and their unions as well as other political, religious and social groups who are working to pass this vital legislation. An independent poll released on Tuesday shows that a majority of Americans support the bill.