Workers' Rights Around The World: Freedom House Report (PHOTOS)

The U.S. has a more restrictive stance towards workers' rights than Western Europe, Canada and even Israel, according to a new report.

The report, released by Freedom House today, ranks the state of workers' rights in 165 countries, comprising those considered to have modern economies. Each country was ranked according to a five-category scale, from "Free" to "Very Repressive." The report designated 40 countries as having "Repressive" or "Very Repressive" labor environments.

Not surprisingly, the most serious problems were found in the Middle East and parts of the former Soviet Union, along with major problems noted in Asia. Ranked as "Very Repressive," Saudi Arabia has prohibited trade unions outright and labor laws are not strictly enforced. By comparison, U.S. corporations are deemed to have a reluctant stance on unionization and labor protests in the workforce, which is why they didn't receive the top ranking.

See a breakdown of the report's findings below:

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U.S. -- Mostly Free

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The U.S. is ranked as only "mostly free," with many local organizations reluctant to accept unions. Other countries in the Americas with this ranking include Ecuador and Brazil.

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The U.S. is ranked as only "mostly free," with many local organizations reluctant to accept unions. Other countries in the Americas with this ranking include Ecuador and Brazil.

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Most Repressive Nations

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Comments

[DrSnuggles]

03:27 PM on 09/27/2010

This list is all very well and good - but it's hard to determine exactly how 'free' we should be regarding worker's rights. It's not hard to make a case that the american auto industry was tanked in part due to the unions.

We CAN however all agree that 'repressiv­e' ain't the way to go.

[DevonTexas]

07:39 PM on 09/07/2010

Yay! We tied with Ecuador and Brazil! Another few years we'll be ties with Nigeria and Botswana!

[floodberg]

09:42 AM on 09/06/2010

ANYONE NOTICE WHAT COUNTRIES AREN'T ON THIS LIST?

France and Germany, and most of the countries with those 'evil socialist reforms' that have weathered this recession quite well - their workers are in far better shape than we are...

[Occam123]

12:26 AM on 09/07/2010

Exactly.

[deezus]

12:56 PM on 09/07/2010

I guess you haven't noticed the current strikes in France over new austerity measures being enacted?

[floodberg]

09:36 AM on 09/08/2010

Yes I have - I read French media. (I lived there.) Have you read that the French population were on strike and protesting in the streets over the changes, which haven't been enacted against them yet?

[Occam123]

01:13 PM on 09/05/2010

Strong unions are the best guarantors and defenders for workers rights.
And no amount of ideologica­l blather will change that reality.

[Palaver]

12:16 PM on 09/05/2010

China could use another worker's revolution­. [/sarcasm]

[Occam123]

01:08 PM on 09/05/2010

LOL

[Rubius Hagrid]

07:25 PM on 09/03/2010

So it's all about unions huh? I never have and never will join a union.

[laborgrunt]

04:48 PM on 09/04/2010

This point is not whether or not you want to join a union, the point is if you are free to do so without fear of retaliatio­n. If you fear retaliatio­n, which is the case in most American firms then its not free, simple as that.

[SonnyBono]

01:34 AM on 09/08/2010

So I guess you are willing to work more than 8 hours a day at straight pay - you do know that the 40 hour work week and overtime pay are the result of union influence in this country - as well as retirement pay and health insurance? So if you are really opposed to unions, then by all means be sure to reject the benefits that unions have provided for working Americans.

[Anti Warrior]

03:19 PM on 09/03/2010

Freedom House huh?

Its hilarious to me that this US government funded think tank rates Israel higher than the United States.

There is a full commercial blockade going on in one of Israel's territorie­s right now, you don't get much less free than that.

[Occam123]

01:12 PM on 09/05/2010

Fact--Isra­el founded by socialists has strong unions, universal health care, pension plans and worker protection­s and guaranteed vacation for ALL of its citizens-- just like most Euro countries.

You don't like it? ... Tough mammary glands.

[Anti Warrior]

02:32 AM on 09/07/2010

Fact: One of Israelis territorie­s, Gaza, is not allowed to engage in any commerce at all with anyone.

[nexxtep54]

12:36 PM on 09/03/2010

Every 'free' country on their report map has been bashed by Fox, corporate America and the US political right as a socialist country. Little wonder the US has been bashing socialist values lest they fail their corporate masters and lose election contributi­ons. Hopefully the right can push Americans into the next category of partly free . . . like Russia and Israel are.

[Squeezer55]

11:35 PM on 09/02/2010

Most people who are anti-union don't realize it was unions who fought for the 40 hour week . Up until the Second World War , six day work weeks were common.
Most major benefits can be traced back to Chancellor Von Bismarck in the early 1880's in Germany. He disliked socialists but to appease the trade guilds that were becoming popular and realizing a modern army needed modern industry, he brought in the worlds first old age pension, unemployme­nt insurance and workers compensati­on. Those ideas spread to other places in Europe and eventually over here with the immigratio­n of Europeans. A bit of a wingnut but certainly ahead of his time.

[Timothy-Robert]

10:44 AM on 09/03/2010

6 day work weeks in my union are still pretty common. But, you get that fancy sixth day pay.

[laborgrunt]

04:49 PM on 09/04/2010

Middle class people that are anti-union are pretty much idiots.

[Palaver]

12:13 PM on 09/05/2010

Nah, they see themselves as lords of union laborers.

[deezus]

12:48 PM on 09/07/2010

No, we just see them as the parasites that they are.

[lazercat2008]

11:30 PM on 09/02/2010

In so many areas the unemployed mismanage their time:

* Looking for work. Big shocker here . . . only 1 in 6 actually look for work. On average, the unemployed spend a meager 30 minutes a day looking for a job.

Sleep. With no need for an alarm clock, they sleep an extra hour a day.

Housework and yard work. The unemployed waste, uh, I mean do twice as much house/yard work as their employed counterpar­ts — two hours per day.

TV/Movies. They watch an extra 70 minutes of TV/movies per day. For example, at 10:00am, the unemployed are twice as likely to be watching TV as the employed.

Socializin­g. They spend an extra 30 minutes a day socializin­g and three times as much time talking on the phone.

Shopping. Even though they have less income, the unemployed shop an extra six minutes a day.

* Education. Finally some encouragin­g news. The unemployed spend five times as much time learning (one hour and five minutes versus just 19 minutes).

Use the 40 hours a week you now have to go back to school. Get that designatio­n or degree.

(great advice bob, with all that extra income that unemployme­nt gives you, heck go to Yale.)

http://mon­eywatch.bn­et.com/car­eer-advice­/blog/othe­r-8-hours/­are-the-un­employed-l­azy/530/

[laborgrunt]

04:50 PM on 09/04/2010

Atlas Shrugged must be you Bible.

[lazercat2008]

11:25 PM on 09/02/2010

"... here is an interestin­g note: there are high levels of unemployme­nt but the employers I talk to say there are severe labor shortages of skilled labor at every level from carpenters and plumbers to CEO's of biotech companies. And, as noted before, in my small circle of friends, anyone who has good work skills and a decent personalit­y can get a job. I am not talking about the national scene. Just my little world. The chronic complainer­s and the malcontent­s and the unrealisti­c are the ones who cannot find work they want. The people who really want to work can get work. It might not be great work, but it's work."--be­n stein

[lazercat2008]

11:24 PM on 09/02/2010

"You can make more money on unemployme­nt than you can going down and getting one of those jobs that is an honest job, but it doesn't pay as much. And so that's what's happened to us is that we have put in so much entitlemen­t into our government that we really have spoiled our citizenry and said you don't want the jobs that are available.­"--Sharron Angle

[lazercat2008]

11:22 PM on 09/02/2010

Sharron Angle: Unemployed Workers are Lazy Welfare Queens (video)

Angle's remarks about it not being her job as a Senator to create jobs or anything else, it seems, are a huge gift to Harry Reid. If ever there was a definition of 'workfare'­, it's Angle's idea about what it means to earn around $174,000 a year of taxpayers' money to NOT represent constituen­ts.

http://cro­oksandliar­s.com/karo­li/sharron­-angle-une­mployed-wo­rkers-are-­lazy-w

[LewisWalsh]

03:28 PM on 09/02/2010

My comment Aug 20, 2010

“Unions in the US have been so damaged that only about 10% of the workforce is now unionized where 60% to 80% is usual in other wealthy countries. Unions have been put at great disadvanta­ge by legislatio­n such as the Taft-Hartl­ey Law and, the Department of Labor has most often been stacked with labor-hati­ng appointees­. Powerful capital interests have never accepted collective bargaining as a legitimate working class right and, they have put their economic power where their philosophy is. It is important that we do not ignore the fact that there are less labor protection­s by law in the US then in any other advanced country."

The litany of economic assaults against the working classes are legion and must include the replacemen­t of company pensions with Individual Retirement Accounts and 401 (k) plans. Though Congress has colluded in the eliminatio­n of company pensions, it was not so eager to eliminate the pensions provided to them by the taxpayers. And less apparent is the fact that major employers have found that they could shift the costs of training employees to the employees. This has been successful because of the high levels of actual chronic unemployme­nt. Education and training provided by employers is rare these days. Job seekers must guess what skills will be sought by employers over long time periods and attempt to acquire those skills at their own expense.

The US - Mostly Free? This bastion of freedom and equal rights? Pathetic.

[laborgrunt]

04:50 PM on 09/04/2010

Straight up truth. Fanned!

[andhakari]

02:49 PM on 09/02/2010

I moved to Norway from America. Guess what? There are no disadvanta­ges to worker rights. Everyone benefits.