Regional collective bargaining in North America: An alternative for balancing trade and labor prerogatives.

摘要

The dissertation "Regional Collective Bargaining in North America: An alternative for balancing trade and labor prerogatives" makes an analysis of the relationship between international trade and the protection of labor rights. It features the evolution of domestic, regional, and international labor efforts and why labor standards (or the lack thereof) existing in today's global economy ultimately fail to protect workers' rights. In particular, the dissertation shows this trend in the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement ("NAFTA") and its parallel regional labor compromise, the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation ("NAALC"). Therefore, the dissertation studies NAALC and its effectiveness to protect labor rights in North America, and compares it with other regional and international labor institutions and legal frameworks like the International Labor Office and the European Labor Law. The dissertation proposes enlarging the scope of NAALC and improving its enforcement means in order to provide greater protection to labor rights. It also suggests the implementation of North American Regional Frameworks. These frameworks would be negotiated by employer, union and government representatives, utilizing collective bargaining methodologies. For such purpose, the dissertation also makes an in depth analysis of the collective bargaining legal framework that is enforceable in each of the North American countries, and utilizes its common structures to create the proposal for its further development.