Last October, the Human Rights Commission in Northampton put its own existence on the agenda: What’s the point of its work, in light of the city’s charter change the year before?
It wasn’t an academic question.
Members of the commission had just heard from workers pursuing a union drive at the Hotel Northampton. Some on the panel wanted to investigate allegations that employees had been discouraged from seeking to organize, despite a 2012 City Council resolution upholding that right.
But a Sept. 18, 2015, memo from the city solicitor put a stop to all that.
At Mayor David J. Narkewicz’s request, Alan Seewald studied whether the commission held the power to intervene in the hotel matter. Seewald found it did not, despite the council resolution bestowing this authority on the commission.
That’s because in the interim, the new charter had separated duties of the legislative and executive branches, giving the mayor full say over the commission. Its work, Seewald’s memo said, was now “beyond the authority of the Council.”
Shorn of investigatory power, the commission can no longer take complaints and should focus, Seewald said, on educating people about human rights.
Had the city decided to play small ball on human rights? That seems to be the effect, but it may be for the best.
It is never easy for a municipal board to intervene in a private-sector employment dispute. That’s especially true in the case of the hotel union drive. The roles of advocate and mediator that the panel expected to fill do not blend well in charged political situations like this. The National Labor Relations Board oversees union elections and provides means for appeal and redress.
Other city and state bodies, including some with far more resources, exist to guard the central principle here: ensuring that people in Northampton are treated with dignity and accorded equal rights. A key one is the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, which investigates allegations of bias. Its Springfield office can be reached by calling (413) 739-2145.
Though they ran up against limits imposed by the charter change, commission members were not inventing the idea that the option of union membership is considered a human right. Groups like this take guidance from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in Paris in December 1948 by the United Nations General Assembly.
Article 23 of the document says that citizens everywhere hold a right to work, are due equal pay for equal work, should earn enough to ensure “an existence worthy of human dignity” and, if desired, should be free “to form and join trade unions ….”
The goals were shaped after the convulsions of a world war and the Holocaust, which killed tens of millions of people. UN member nations argued that the world should treat humans better – and they put it in writing.
After being rebuffed by the city solicitor, the commission’s chair called for a review of Article 23 and posted its full wording on the panel’s Oct. 28 agenda. Nonetheless, the charter change took it out of the business of investigating breaches in human rights. This month, two of its members quit, citing disappointment in this more narrow role.
While we understand their frustration, the commission has not had the resources and support needed to conduct credible investigations or to handle mediation.
It’s a problem of scale, not commitment. Human rights commissions elsewhere, including in Canadian provinces and cities like San Francisco, are backed up by administrative and legal staffs. The commission in San Francisco holds the same goals, but continues to receive and investigate complaints and to provide mediation. Then again, that’s a city of 837,000 people, compared to Northampton’s 28,495, and with a municipal budget of $8.9 billion, nearly 84 times that of Northampton.
Narkewicz says he is considering applicants to fill open seats on the panel.
We urge him to act swiftly and to send a clear message that he believes the commission does essential work. The panel’s members should boldly sound the alarm if they believe human rights are being violated.