Immigrant Workers and the Domestic Enforcement of International Labor Rights

University of Pennsylvania Journal of Labor & Employment Law, Vol. 4, p. 529, 2002

29 Pages Posted: 9 Jan 2011

Date Written: 2002

Abstract

Globalization poses many challenges to working people and their advocates. In light of the demands on the limited resources of United States unions and other labor advocates, it may seem folly to suggest an additional strategy for addressing the consequences of globalization. Yet there is a further method of advocacy, one that is relatively low-cost but could both advance the direct interests of some of the most exploited workers in this country and aid broader international labor rights initiatives: enforcement of international labor standards in the United States, particularly on behalf of immigrant workers. This Article outlines two specific strategies that labor advocates should consider incorporating into their existing efforts on behalf of working people in the United States. The first is federal litigation on behalf of immigrant workers for violations of international labor law, pursuant to the Alien Tort Claims Act. The second is challenging United States under-enforcement of existing labor rights and standards by invocation of the international consultative and arbitration processes established by the labor side-agreement to the North American Free Trade Agreement. Both strategies are worthy of consideration because they may further the campaign-specific goals of individual workers, unions, and other labor organizations, but also for the independent reason that each will compel United States judicial and executive-branch institutions to measure public and private domestic labor practices against international standards. Moreover, embracing either strategy may enable United States labor advocates to “lead by example” in taking international labor standards seriously and demanding that United States public and private institutions honor our nation's international obligations. This, in turn, may offer a potentially useful response to those who oppose further definition and development of international labor norms and who criticize the movement as concerned solely with protecting domestic labor markets in advanced industrial nations.

Keywords: labor, employment, immigration, international labor law, international law, Alien Tort Claims Act, NAAFTA, NAALC, domestic worker

Suggested Citation

Wishnie, Michael J., Immigrant Workers and the Domestic Enforcement of International Labor Rights (2002). University of Pennsylvania Journal of Labor & Employment Law, Vol. 4, p. 529, 2002, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1737066

Michael J. Wishnie (Contact Author)

Yale Law School ( email )

P.O. Box 208215
New Haven, CT 06520-8215
United States
203-432-4800 (Phone)
203-432-1426 (Fax)

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
64
Abstract Views
513
Rank
622,763
PlumX Metrics