As scholars, teachers and citizens, we recognize that the right to form unions and bargain collectively has been essential to the establishment and enrichment of democracy in Wisconsin, in the United States and around the world. The International Labor Organization, which the United States joined in 1934, states that ?the right of workers and employers to form and join organizations of their own choosing is an integral part of a free and open society? and includes collective bargaining rights among the four ?fundamental principles and rights at work.? The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the United States endorsed in 1948, states that all workers have the ?right to form and to join trade unions for the protection? of their interests.
Office of Strategic Communication