Freedom of Association and the Right to Contest: Getting Back to Basics
As worker participation through trade unions has declined across much of the developed world, especially in the US, the UK and Canada, scholars and activists have turned to the concept of "freedom of association" (FOA) -- defined in international labour law as the fundamental right of workers to form and join trade unions of their own choosing -- as a basis for reclaiming a voice for workers in economic governance. Much of this work pursues what we call a strategy of ascent: to what extent does the existing FOA as defined in international and national labour law encompass constitutionalised rights to collective bargaining and to strike, for example? This chapter adopts instead a strategy of descent: does FOA both rest on and help to support more basic rights of concerted protest in the workplace as a prelude to, or even a substitute for, trade union organisation? Drawing upon Philip Pettit's philosophical work on freedom as non-domination, the chapter contends for the recognition of an individual right to contest employer power, free from both state and employer interference. This fundamental labour right, coupled with an associational right or freedom to do jointly with others what one has the right or freedom to do as individuals, provides a normative foundation for protecting informal concerted activity as well as the more familiar trade union forms of FOA. This chapter maps the specific configuration of labour rights in Canada, the UK and the US from this perspective, and identifies some newly-apparent gaps in both the law and the scholarly literature regarding fundamental labour rights.
Square peg versus a round hole? The Necessity of a Bill of Rights for Workers
The exercise of human rights is put at risk by the creation, conduct, and termination of employment relationships. For this reason, we often find that fundamental rights arguments are invoked in disputes between employers and workers and the mechanisms of labour and employment law are pressed to vindicate those rights through a process of ‘constitutionalisation’. Notably, the European Convention on Human Rights, through the doctrine of positive obligations, places important demands upon national legal systems, their legislators and their judges, to protect the rights of individuals against other private parties. Taking the law of dismissal in England & Wales as an illustrative example, this article argues that the current approach to safeguarding workers’ rights and complying with the Convention’s positive obligations is inadequate. Making adjustments to the existing structure of employment rights will always be insufficiently radical as those structures are ill-suited to performing this function, their limitations are systemic and furthermore the judiciary is unwilling to disrupt the established analytical approach. Instead, I propose and detail an alternative solution: introducing a Bill of Rights that would render the rights of the European Convention enforceable between worker and employer.
Study on urea-modified phenol formaldehyde resin adhesive
A reasonable technology to synthesize Urea-Modified Phenol Formaldehyde resins is realized by reacting phenol,urea and formaldehyde.The resin's feasibility is explored.The experiment result of shows that storable stability of the modified resin is good.The curing temperature of PUF resins was 25 ℃,lower than that of PF resins.The curing speed of PUF resins is faster than that of PF resins at the same curing temperature.The physical properties of the birch plywood bonded with PUF resins is similar to that of the birch plywood bonded with normal PF resins.The mechanical properties of the birch plywood bonded with PUF resins can achieve the demands of GB/T9846-1988.Free formaldehyde content of plywood is lower than the E1 level set by GB18580-2001.The cost of the adhesive is lowered for the use of urea,and its comprehensive properties is better than that of PF resins.