Al Jazeera: Workers’ rights are human rights

December 22, 2014 2:00AM ET

On Dec. 10, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered Walmart to stop punishing and intimidating workers for union organizing and protests against low wages and working conditions. A day earlier, the Supreme Court ruled that an Amazon.com contractor, Integrity Staffing Solutions Inc., does not have to pay nonunionized warehouse workers for the time they spend in security screening after the official end of their shifts. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the worker’s claims “are properly presented to the employer at the bargaining table.” But since these workers are not unionized, there is no bargaining table.