From Workers' Rights to Worker Appropriation A Response to Joseph A. McCartin

Bibliographic Data

ID11637002
AuthorsRichard Mcintyre (University of Rhode Island, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume80
Issue1
Pages176-183
Publication date2011-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Labor and Working-Class History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0147-5479 • E-ISSN: 1471-6445
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0147547911000184
OpenAlexW1968713045
LanguageEN
References cited14

There has been little examination of the possible negative effects on labor's interests when those interests are asserted as rights. It is as if proclaiming “workers' rights are human rights” can only cause good things to happen. Joseph McCartin's essay contributes to a more balanced and sophisticated discussion of the effects of rights talk for labor. He uses George McGovern's critique of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) to illustrate the more general point that prolabor rights arguments invite antilabor rights arguments even from friends of labor, and that in the current conjuncture appeals to rights are more likely to empower neoliberals and libertarians than workers. Indeed, the very name of the proposed act, emphasizing freedom and choice, is part of the problem, as the union idea involves definite limits on individual freedom in the interest of the betterment of the group. The titling of EFCA indicates unwillingness on the part of Labor and its allies to face this

Appropriation · Face (sociological concept · Human rights · Labor history · Labor relations · Law and economics · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Philosophy

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