Kaiser, TV judge Greg Mathis, Human Rights Watch, Honored for Supporting Workers’ Rights

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/04/19/kaiser-greg-mathis-human-rights-watch-honored-for-supporting-workers-rights/

Kaiser, Greg Mathis, Human Rights Watch, Honored for Supporting Workers’ Rights

by James Parks, Apr 19, 2007

The workers’ advocacy group American Rights at Work honored some of the nation’s leading advocates for workers’ rights April 18 at its Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award Celebration in Washington, D.C.

Kaiser Permanente was honored for its management-union partnership. For the past decade, company management and a coalition of unions representing health care workers and support staff have crafted a working relationship that solves problems and improves patient care.


TV judge Greg Mathis has been an outspoken supporter of fair labor laws.

American Rights at Work also honored award-winning TV judge Greg Mathis, who has been an outspoken supporter of fair labor laws. Earlier in the day, actor Bradley Whitford, who emceed the event, joined Mathis in a meeting with workers from across the country to discuss the barriers they have faced while attempting to join a union and bargain for fair treatment at work. At the meeting, Mathis posed the question:

What kind of world are we building for our young people when we allow workers’ rights to be disrespected and violated? We need to strengthen labor laws in this country to bridge the gap between our good intentions and today’s harsh realities in the workplace.

At last year’s NAACP convention, Mathis blasted the NLRB decision to reclassify 8 million workers as “supervisors.” In 2004, he backed laundry employees of Angelica Textile Services in their victorious campaign to join UNITE HERE by participating in a Jobs with Justice National Workers’ Rights Board hearing in St. Louis.

Human Rights Watch, which exposes significant legal barriers to freedom of association in U.S. workplaces, also received an award. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says Human Rights Watch showed remarkable vision when it applied its credible and impartial research into human rights violations around the world to examining human rights abuses in U.S. workplaces. In 2000, Human Rights Watch issued a report that blasted the United States for its failure to enforce workers’ rights standards, including the freedom to form unions.

FULL story at link.

[Faux pas]

1. I love Greg Mathis! Good for him and good for those who

recognized his efforts.