You Have the Right to ... Collectively Bargain?

When the American founders signed the Declaration of Independence, they enshrined our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We usually refer to these as fundamental, natural, or God given rights. While these rights are the foundation of our storied civil society and representative government, people of the Middle East are now sacrificing their lives to secure those basic rights. At the same time, American labor unions are sacrificing their sick days for their self proclaimed human right to collectively bargain.

There are varying degrees of how people define what a right is. Differing degrees include natural, God given, human, political, and civil rights. Now-a-days, people combine the concept of "rights" with any classification of people in order to defend their cause; student rights, fliers' rights, workers' rights.

To properly grasp the dynamics of what right are, understanding where they come from is key. The Bill of Rights protects citizens from the intrusion of the government; the document is not the government granting rights, but protecting your rights from the government. This means that rights exist independent from the government. So can the government create rights, or simply honor them?

Some in Europe have recently pushed for a universal right to the internet access or vacation. The United Nation Declaration of Human Rights enumerates a long list of supposed human rights. These entities take a proactive, or hands-on attitude towards rights. Their definition of a right has inherent government action mandated; provide education, health service, etc. On the other hand, a more libertarian approach calls for hands-off rights. People have a right to natural/fundamental rights, protected from the government - this includes the right to fail. The libertarian quip that "my rights end at your nose" (or as the Tea Party might say "my rights end at your wallet") calls for limits on government involvement or responsibility. Government is not inherently required to ensure a supposed (or government created) right.

That's why I fear the "human right" moniker attached to collective bargaining. While other countries' lists of human rights is a bloated enumeration of excuses for government involvement, America has avoided such capitulations to interest groups. Human rights still have a fundamental sense. The term "civil rights" often refers to those rights created and ensured by the government; minimum wage, voting, etc.

Yet, I'm not sure collective bargaining is even a civil right. It is a contract line in a term of employment. Over 85% of Americans do not enjoy such a luxury. They advance on the basis of their own merit, not on the negotiating skills of their union lawyers. If it was a right, shouldn't Senators, lawyers, and insure salesmen have that privilege as well?

If labor unions were truly into rights, wouldn't they offer workers the right not to be in a union?

(They're against that right by the way)