“The very fact that there’s a labor chapter in the text instead of a side agreement is an encouraging sign,” says Gladys Cisneros, program director in Mexico for the Solidarity Center… However, between 70 and 90 percent of collective bargaining agreements registered in Mexico fall under the category of “employer protection unions,” Cisneros says.
The Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association must begin to see international institutions and NGOs as allies in the effort to show just how the industry is moving toward greater compliance. The ILO and U.S. Solidarity Center can be of immense help… Not only do they have the professionals Myanmar needs to move ahead, they have the credibility Myanmar lacks.
Workers in Bangladesh garment factories & fisheries now have access to six digital centers where they can access more than 150 public and private services, including financial services, quickly & at a lower cost—a USAID project with Solidarity Center.
Malaysia is “a booming economy… with a huge amount of foreign investment,” said David Welsh of the Solidarity Center. “But, in a region plagued with human-rights abuses and labor abuses, Malaysia is in many ways transparently the regional leader.”
A joint analysis of the draft law, conducted by the Solidarity Center, CCHR and the International Trade Union Confederation, argued it did not adhere to international standards and best practices.
A study on violence and harassment at work found that 20 of 80 countries surveyed had no laws to protect workers from retaliation if they reported sexual harassment, and 19 did not even have a legal definition of sexual harassment at work, writes the Solidarity Center’s Lisa McGowan. But there is a way forward. Hundreds of workers, their unions and human rights allies are at the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva this week and next, where they are pushing for a global rule that includes include strong protections against gender-based violence at work.