A Shameful Business: The Case for Human Rights in the American Workplace
In a book that confronts the moral choices that U.S. corporations make every day in the treatment of their workers, James A. Gross issues a clarion call for the transformation of the American workplace based on genuine respect for human rights, rather than whatever the economic and regulatory landscape might allow. Gross questions the nation's underlying fabric of values as reflected in its laws and our assumptions about workers and the workplace.\ Arguing that our market philosophy is...
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In a book that confronts the moral choices that U.S. corporations make every day in the treatment of their workers, James A. Gross issues a clarion call for the transformation of the American workplace based on genuine respect for human rights, rather than whatever the economic and regulatory landscape might allow. Gross questions the nation's underlying fabric of values as reflected in its laws and our assumptions about workers and the workplace. Arguing that our market philosophy is incompatible with core principles of human rights, he forces readers to realign the country's labor policies so that they conform with the highest international human rights standards. To make his case, Gross assesses various aspects of U.S. labor relations-freedom of association, racial discrimination, management rights, workplace safety, and human resources-through the lens of internationally accepted human rights principles as standards of judgment. His findings are chilling. "Employers who maintain workplaces that require men and women and sometimes even children to risk their lives and endanger their health and eyes and limbs in order to earn a living are treating human life as cheap and are seeking their own gain through the desecration of human life," Gross argues, and such behavior should be considered as crimes against humanity rather than matters of efficiency, productivity, or morale. By revealing how truly unacceptable management's "best practices" can be when considered as human rights issues, A Shameful Business encourages a bold new vision for workers, whether organized or not, that would signify a radical rethinking of social values and the concept of workplace rights and justice in thecourtroom, the boardroom, and on the shop floor.
Introduction 11 Justice and Human Rights 82 "Without Distinction of Any Kind": Race and Human Rights in the United States 243 The Market Economics Values underlying U.S. Labor Law: Property Rights over Workers' Rights 434 Property Rights over Freedom of Association Rights: Congressional and Judicial Value Choices 665 Expanding the Zone of Management Control: Devaluing the Freedom of Association 846 Violations of the Human Right to Life and Limb: Safety and Health at U.S. Workplaces 1047 The Value Choices of Courts, OSHA, and Labor Arbitrators: Management Rights over Workers' Human Rights 1278 Surreptitious Violations: Human Resources and Workplace Human Rights 1609 Crimes against Humanity: Concluding Thoughts about Choosing Human Rights 193Notes 215Index 243
\ From the Publisher"If you're not convinced already that the rights of America's workers have been thoroughly trumped by corporate property rights-and that we are paying an unacceptably high price as a result-you will be after reading this powerful and deeply unsettling book."-Sheldon Friedman, Research Coordinator, AFL-CIO Voice@Work Campaign\ "A Shameful Business offers a thoughtful and comprehensive critique of contemporary labor policy in America. By viewing labor rights as human rights, James A. Gross has provided a provocative, highly original, and thoroughly readable record of America's shocking failure to comply with international human rights norms."-Robert Hebdon, McGill University\ \ \
