Oct 28, 2024
The Solidarity Center issued the following statement in celebration of International Day of Care and Support:
Today, on the International Day of Care and Support, we honor and celebrate the millions of workers who provide essential care services, from domestic work to child and elder care to home and community health care. Across the world, this work is largely done by women, migrant workers and racialized groups — people who have constantly had the value of their work undervalued and overlooked. Care providers have fought hard over decades to improve their working conditions and advance their rights. But so much remains to be done.
Domestic workers advocated for the adoption of a key International Labor Organization (ILO) standard for protecting and promoting the rights of domestic workers (Convention 189). Care workers were among the leading labor movement voices calling for an international treaty on ending gender-based violence and harassment (Convention 190). Care workers are winning country-level ratification of these treaties. But we’ve also seen staunch opposition from companies and governments to accepting and implementing these standards to ensure dignity and fairness.
In many economies with a shortage of care workers, governments and employers are promoting labor migration to fill the gaps. Yet, too often, migration policies and practices ignore the rights of the workers who migrate. We will continue to work in solidarity with migrant care workers and the unions and organizations that represent them to ensure that governments promote fair regular migration pathways that ensure full worker rights and options for family unity and permanent residence while also preserving the ability for care workers to stay in their home countries.
We know this industry will continue to evolve. The next generation of care workers already use app-based services to find work or have tech increasingly integrated into their jobs. As we look to next summer’s International Labor Conference, we will continue to advocate for public investments in the care economy, the adoption of social protection and anti-discrimination policies, and the recognition that care workers have the right to organize freely and collectively bargain. We stand ready to support workers and their unions as they organize and fight for their rights — no matter what the next frontier of care work brings.
Care work is essential for all of us. It makes all other kinds of work possible. The workers who care for us and our loved ones deserve respect, dignity and decent work. Achieving fair and decent work standards within the care economy is one of Solidarity Center’s key goals in our programs worldwide and is necessary for ensuring quality care for all. As we look to the year ahead, we are proud to stand with unions, care workers themselves, and our partners as they fight for the rights and respect that these critical members of our social and economic fabric deserve.
Sep 16, 2024
The Solidarity Center welcomes the release of Cambodia’s Sithar Chhim, president of the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld (LRSU), who in 2022 was jailed for exercising her human right to peacefully assemble and freely associate and subsequently sentenced to two years in prison for “incitement to commit a felony”– a common charge against Cambodian rights activists.
“We are grateful that sister Sithar Chhim has been released and laud LRSU leaders and activists for their commitment and courage in continuing to fight for their rights,” says Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau.
Chhim was jailed with seven union colleagues for peacefully walking a picket line at Phnom Penh NagaWorld Hotel and Casino in 2022 and sentenced the following year to two years in prison for “incitement.” In years prior, the union’s successful organizing and activism had won substantial wage increases for thousands of NagaWorld employees.
The arrests and later convictions prompted global condemnation, including from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UN Human Rights Office and inspired a global union campaign for the release of LRSU leaders and for their charges to be expunged by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) and other unions worldwide.
The 2024 ITUC Global Rights Index rates Cambodia as one of the worst countries to work in, where workers have “no guarantee of rights.”
Jun 26, 2024
Guatemalan union leader Anastacio Tzib Caal was shot and killed on June 15 in a targeted murder in the municipality of Villa Canales, outside of Guatemala City. Anastacio dedicated his life to improving working conditions in Guatemala’s apparel sector. He was recently elected general secretary of the SITRATEXPIA II union at SAE-A Trading’s Texpia II apparel factory, which produces garments for several global brands, including Gap, Carhartt, Target and Walmart. The murder comes after a resurgence in calls for violence against labor leaders at the factory three months after the union had initially engaged with the company management to respond to earlier threats.
The ITUC has again rated Guatemala as one of the 10 worst countries in the world to be a worker, with more than 111 murdered trade unionists since 2004.
Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau offered this statement:
“The Solidarity Center condemns the June 15 murder of Anastacio Tzib Caal and extends its deepest condolences to his family, the two children he leaves behind, and his union sisters and brothers in SITRATEXPIA II.
“The assassination of General Secretary Tzib Caal comes after repeated death threats against union leaders at the factory. The Solidarity Center stands with the leaders of SITRATEXPIA II in calling for a robust investigation of the perpetrators of this heinous crime under the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Trade Unionists.
“Threats against union activists and violence against elected union leaders stand in direct contradiction to the principles of worker rights and empowerment.
“The Solidarity Center urges buyers like Gap and Target to redouble their commitments to freedom of association and collective bargaining with their suppliers; support the union’s proposed labor-management plan to counter the perception, brought on by the assassination, that union activism is synonymous with death; and maintain their commitments to creating good jobs in Guatemala in partnership with SAE-A Trading.
“The support we are seeing across the global labor movement for the new Arévalo administration’s commitment to workers’ human rights gives us hope for a future where workers can exercise their rights without fear of violence.”
Nov 16, 2023
In response to the unveiling of the Biden administration’s Presidential Memorandum on Advancing Worker Empowerment, Rights and High Labor Standards Globally, Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau issued the following statement:
“The Biden administration’s announcement today represents the first time the U.S. government has made a holistic commitment to global worker rights. If this new global labor strategy is fully resourced and implemented, the United States has a historic opportunity to play a critical role in reversing corporate- and government-supported exploitation of millions of working people and bolster democratic freedoms around the world.
“It is impossible to overstate the need for this long-awaited commitment to worker rights. In many countries where the United States has diplomatic, trade and economic development influence, workers’ ability to exercise everyday democracy—through the rights to form and join unions, strike and bargain together for fair wages and decent working conditions—is consistently repressed, often violently and sometimes fatally. In just the past two months, police allegedly shot and killed three garment workers and injured many more during protests for a higher minimum wage in Bangladesh; entered a labor union leader’s home in the Philippines, shooting him dead; and assaulted workers in Nigeria protesting over lost wages, seriously injuring the union’s leader. This new strategy to advance global labor rights is a roadmap for the U.S. government to expand its use of diplomatic and trade leverage and multilateral tools and settings to garner additional countries’ support for upholding worker rights.
“The U.S. government should use its direct influence or its convening power with other nations to address labor rights repression in places like Belarus and Myanmar, where unions fighting for democracy have been outlawed by their governments, their leaders and members beaten, jailed, sent into exile or killed.
“This all-of-government labor rights strategy should also focus on influencing labor laws and increasing employer accountability. Today, U.S. companies too often treat sourcing like a game of Whac-A-Mole, jumping from country to country when strengthened and enforced labor laws drive workers’ pay closer to a living wage. And, most of the 2 billion people who work in the informal economy, including agriculture and domestic workers, street vendors and drivers and delivery workers in the growing platform economy, have no access to health care, sick leave or support when they are injured or lose their jobs.
“The Biden administration’s trade approach in Mexico has the potential to be a game-changer for workers and an example of this new labor strategy’s potential impact. The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement includes a rapid response complaint mechanism unions are using to remedy worker rights abuses. Tying worker rights to U.S. market access and investing in independent union organizing has led to an unprecedented growth of democratic unions that represent workers’ interests and are winning wage hikes and safety improvements in factories that supply the U.S. market. Replicating this kind of approach to worker-centered trade policy should be a priority.
“We are hopeful that this commitment to global labor rights will mean workers are represented in conversations about how to sustain good union jobs in communities worldwide that are most impacted by the transition to a clean energy economy. We look forward to workers’ rights and livelihoods becoming front-and-center in conversations about the evolution of technology in the workplace. And, we look forward to expanded investment and prioritization of a worker rights approach to ending gender-based violence and harassment and other forms of exploitation on the job.”
Nov 2, 2023
Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) President Joe Ajaero was beaten and arrested November 1 as workers rallied to protest unpaid wages in Imo state in southeastern Nigeria. Police reportedly beat Ajaero and assaulted protesting workers with machetes and confiscated their mobile devices. Some NLC and Nigeria Trade Union Congress members who attended the rally say they have not been paid for up to 20 months. Ajaero was released from police custody to a hospital because of his injuries.
Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau offered this statement:
“The Solidarity Center joins calls by the Nigeria Labor Congress and the Nigeria Trade Union Congress in condemning the assaults on NLC President Joe Ajaero and the workers who rightfully stood up to receive the pay that they worked for and deserve. Violence and bloodshed have no place in the democratic exercise of the freedom to peacefully gather. The fundamental right of workers to be paid what they are owed is one of the bedrock principles of democratic societies. Efforts to intimidate workers and their elected leaders through brutal attacks must be called out for what they are: violations of fundamental human rights as guaranteed by international conventions and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, all of which the Nigerian government has signed.”
Our thoughts are with Joe Ajaero and all those injured as we call for justice to the perpetrators of these crimes.”
Oct 5, 2023
Union leader Jude Thaddeus Fernandez, 67, was killed September 29 in the house where he was staying in Binangonan, Rinzal Province. A division of the Philippine National Police reportedly entered Fernandez’s home and shot him dead. Fernandez was mobilizing his community in a campaign to raise wages and end government corruption and human rights violations. Four union leaders and members have been murdered in the Philippines this year. The International Trade Union Confederation also ranks the Philippines as one of the ten worst countries for worker rights.
Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau offered this statement:
“The Solidarity Center stands with our partners in the Philippines, the Nagkaisa labor coalition, in condemning the brutal killing of Jude Thaddeus Fernandez, a dedicated union organizer who devoted decades to improving the lives of working people. We are outraged by this unconscionable act and denounce the escalating violence against union leaders and working people in the Philippines and around the world for seeking to improve their working conditions and ensure their fundamental democratic rights.
“We extend our deepest condolences to Jude’s family and community as they mourn their loss, and we stand in solidarity with the Philippine labor movement in its call for the International Labor Organization, the UN Commission on Human Rights and other relevant agencies to swiftly respond and act to attain justice.”
