THE HAGUE, Netherlands (CN) — From dockworkers to delivery drivers, workers around the world just got a major boost from judges in The Hague, who said international law protects the right to strike.
The International Court of Justice said Thursday a landmark postwar labor treaty protecting workers’ freedom to organize also protects their ability to walk off the job, ending a standoff that has clogged parts of the United Nations’ labor system for more than a decade.
In 2012, employer groups at the International Labour Organization openly challenged something the agency’s labor experts had treated as settled for years: That unions cannot meaningfully defend workers if employees are allowed to organize but denied the power to collectively stop working.
The clash became so severe that one of the organization’s major standards meetings stalled out, with employers refusing to discuss cases involving strike rights.
A year later, employers pushed even further, questioning whether the labor agency’s own experts had authority to interpret international labor conventions at all.
Talks dragged on for years without a breakthrough. By 2023, the labor agency’s governing body voted to send the dispute to the world court after a request from the Workers’ Group backed by 36 governments.
“The court notes that strike action is one of the main activities engaged in and tools used by workers and their organizations to promote their interests and improve conditions of labor,” the judges wrote.
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