Freedom to Form Unions

Honduras, garment workers, worker rights, Solidarity Center

More than 40,000 garment workers in Honduras are now covered by collective bargaining agreements following long-time Solidarity Center support for organizing. Credit: Solidarity Center/Molly McCoy

Unions promote a higher level of economic equality in societies and are a fundamental element of a free and democratic society. Freedom of association—workers’ right to form and join unions and pursue a voice on the job and in their communities—is the foundation for worker rights.

The Solidarity Center trains union organizers and provides support for unions around the world. We support organizing campaigns, educate workers about their legal right to form a union and promote strong labor laws.

The Solidarity Center works directly on the ground with workers to form unions and win collective bargaining agreements. For instance, in Cambodia, 8,000 hotel and casino workers at Nagaworld casino won large wage increases and reinstatement of their dismissed union president following Solidarity Center union organizing support and legal assistance. And in Honduras, long-time Solidarity Center support for organizing has resulted in more than 40,000 garment workers, mostly women, now covered by collective bargaining agreements.

Read the “Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association” report presented in 2016 to the United Nations.

Statement: Four Apparel Workers’ Union Leaders Killed in Honduras Massacre

The Solidarity Center joins the U.S. and international labor movements in condemning the brutal massacre of 13 people in the city of Choloma, Cortes, Honduras, among them four union leaders from the Sindicato de trabajadores de Gildan San Miguel (SITRAGSAM).  The...

African Union Leaders Join Forces in Historic Democracy Summit

  Dozens of union leaders from across Africa took part in the first-ever Summit for Democracy event on the continent March 30, where they discussed the essential role of unions in strengthening democracy and shared strategies on how unions can step up efforts to...

Podcast: Workers Speak Out: Unions Are Essential for Democracy

Workers from around the world, including those exiled from Belarus, Eswatini and Myanmar for forming unions, striking and trying to speak freely, describe why democracy is important—and why unions are key to democracy—in a special episode of The Solidarity Center...
African Union Leaders Join Forces in Historic Democracy Summit

African Union Leaders Join Forces in Historic Democracy Summit

  Dozens of union leaders from across Africa took part in the first-ever Summit for Democracy event on the continent March 30, where they discussed the essential role of unions in strengthening democracy and shared strategies on how unions can step up efforts to...

Podcast: Workers Speak Out: Unions Are Essential for Democracy

Podcast: Workers Speak Out: Unions Are Essential for Democracy

Workers from around the world, including those exiled from Belarus, Eswatini and Myanmar for forming unions, striking and trying to speak freely, describe why democracy is important—and why unions are key to democracy—in a special episode of The Solidarity Center...

Pin It on Pinterest