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Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau
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ILR Press (an imprint of Cornell University Press)

 

A SHAMEFUL BUSINESS: The Case for Human Rights in the American Workplace [February 2010]

James A. Gross

http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=5584

 

$21.95s paper

Available in FEBRUARY, 264 pages, 6 x 9

ISBN: 978-0-8014-7644-0 

 

$59.95x cloth

Available in FEBRUARY, 264 pages, 6 x 9

ISBN: 978-0-8014-4844-7 

 

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 the courtroom, the boardroom, and on the shop floor.

 

Reviews

 

"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

 

About the Author

James A. Gross is Professor of Labor Law at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University. He is editor of Workers' Rights as Human Rights, also from Cornell, and coeditor most recently of Human Rights in Labor and Employment Relations: International and Domestic Perspectives, also available from Cornell.

 

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This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.

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Stuart Basefsky                   
Director, IWS News Bureau                
Institute for Workplace Studies 
Cornell/ILR School                        
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor             
New York, NY 10016                        
                                   
Telephone: (607) 255-2703                
Fax: (607) 255-9641                       
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu                  
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