Ramon Alexander Mosquea Rosario, a union leader at Frito Lay/Pepsico worksites in the Dominican Republic, helped form the National Union of Workers of Dominican Frito Lay (SINTRALAYDO), despite nine years of employer harassment, firings and retaliation.
He encourages other workers to never give up their struggle.
Prexedes, a domestic worker from Zimbabwe in South Africa, says migrant workers in South Africa often are paid lower wages and suffer harsher working conditions than their South African counterparts.
But after joining a union, Prexedes says she has a better salary, better working hours, weekends off and more.
“Hello my name is Jésus Maria Lora , I am Dominican. I belong to the Dominican Pepsi Company/Frito Lay union (SINTRALAYDO). Here is a bit of my history and what we have achieved by being organised as a trade union.
“I have worked for the company for 10 years, I am education secretary.
“What can I say, having succeeded in getting our collective contract has been a tough, but at the same time, good experience. We have been fighting for about nine years for this. Nine years ago we had a situation which was one of precariousness for the workers, then we got involved in this daily struggle—well, day after day—our achievement was this collective contract; that’s why I am telling you my story.
“Don’t give up, keep your head high, and always fight for what you want, because if you do that, you will always achieve what you want as we did in the Dominican Republic. It’s been a success, a great achievement, this collective agreement. We have gained the confidence of the workers (women and men) through social media and the community.
“This has allowed us to be accepted, trusted by the workers and their families as well, to achieve this great level of support on social media that we invite you to copy from us, this struggle we have won, this experience we have acquired, which has been very good, I hope you achieve it too and above all, unity! Wherever there is unity, you will always achieve what you want to achieve.
“Not one step backward! Forward!”
For years, Kyin San, like many rice farmers in Myanmar, worried that her land would be confiscated for large-scale development, as had so many other farms over the years.
But now, Kyin Sun says, farmers are no longer hesitant to negotiate with the government to settle disputes. Along with 10,000 other farmers in the Hlae Ku Township, Kyin Sun has joined the Agriculture and Farmer Federation of Myanmar (AFFM), part of the Confederation of Trade Unions–Myanmar (CTUM).
“Through CTUM, we have made much progress,” she says.
My name is Sultan Mutlag Ahmed, president of Salah Al Din’s branch of the General Federation of Workers’ Unions in Iraq (GFWUI). I participated in a workshop organized by the international Solidarity Center on Iraqi Labor Law, and it was a very valuable workshop. After completing the workshop, I was able to implement strategies discussed at the workshop. Specifically: There was a contractor who hired workers for five months, but only paid them for two months. He refused to pay for the whole period because he didn’t need them for the entire five months.
So we at the workers union intervened and convinced the contractor that he has to pay. He first said that the agreement he had with the workers was verbal and not written so I told him it doesn’t matter if it was verbal or written. I also called the chairperson of court, the labor court in Salah Al Din, and when he called the contractor he decided to pay the workers for the entire five months. I told the contractor that before he pays them, he needs to sign a written contract with them, so he signed a contract and paid them the money, and the issue was resolved, thank God.
Cambodia’s Siem Reap temple complex draws millions of tourists each year. But what most tourists do not see are the restoration workers like Ong Kay, who are paid low wages and toil under the hot sun without safety clothing or equipment to protect against falling stones and other hazards.