This is an interesting approach taken by the AFL-CIO.

Immigrant Workers’ Rights Violated, A.C.L.U. Charges
By NINA BERNSTEIN

On behalf of six illegal immigrant workers, including the widow of a Mexican killed on a Brooklyn demolition site, the American Civil Liberties Union and other law and labor groups charged yesterday that the United States has failed to protect basic workplace rights guaranteed under international law.

The charges came in a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an arm of the Organization of American States, which includes all the 35 nations of the Western Hemisphere.

The petition, filed by the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and the other groups, is an unusual appeal to an international body to push American courts and lawmakers away from a 2002 Supreme Court ruling known as Hoffman v. National Labor Relations Board. The petitioners say the ruling has had a snowball effect, limiting or denying the basic protection of labor laws to millions of illegal immigrant workers in violation of principles like equal protection before the law and freedom of association under the nation’s international treaty obligations.

The commission, based in Washington, has no enforcement powers, but it has considerable moral authority, and an overall record of cooperation by member states, including the United States. Unlike other member states, however, the United States does not consider the commission’s rulings legally binding.

The rest of the article is here.

I’ve always been supportive of the idea that if business is globalizing, then, yes, labor should do the same. Alert to AFL-CIO P.R. Dept: why isn’t this on the front page of your website or even any place that a poor soul like me can find it so I can link to it…and give you the credit you would love to have 🙂