As long-time union activists helping domestic workers form unions and get a voice on the job, Andrea Del Carmen Morales Pérez and Librada Maciel found themselves fighting burnout—from stress, from nonstop work and from unrecognized trauma they carried with them for...
The Solidarity Center joins with unions in Kenya and around the world in championing ratification of the ILO global treaty Convention 189 covering domestic worker rights. Credit: KUDHEIHA
Millions of domestic workers are employed in countries where they are excluded from national labor laws, including limits to working hours, minimum wage and overtime pay. Domestic workers, who are predominantly women and sometimes children, toil invisibly in private homes. Some live on their employer’s premises where, away from the public eye, they often are subject to abuse. Nearly one in five domestic workers are international migrants.
The Solidarity Center supports unions around the world as they assist domestic workers in gaining their rights on the job such as in Honduras and Ukraine, where workers formed the first domestic workers union in their countries with the assistance of Solidarity Center partners.
Together with the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF) and the U.S.-based National Domestic Workers Alliance, the Solidarity Center supports leadership, gender equality and rights-based training for domestic workers to strengthen their ability to advocate for improved wages and working conditions.
Many domestic workers migrate for jobs to the Gulf countries and the Middle East, and the Solidarity Center works to advance their rights with union partners in origin and destination countries, such as the Kuwait Trade Union Federation (KTUF), which launched a migrant worker office that assists domestic workers and other migrant workers experiencing wage theft and other forms of exploitation.
The Solidarity Center, which joined with unions and rights organizations in championing passage of the 2011 International Labor Organization’s global treaty (Convention 189) covering domestic worker rights, assists unions in pushing for adoption of the treaty in their countries to ensure domestic work is legally recognized and valued. The Solidarity Center also supports domestic worker unions achieve labor rights in countries such as Mexico, where union partners won the right to written contracts and a ban on employing workers younger than age 15.
Honduran Domestic Workers Join Newly Formed Union
Domestic workers in Honduras increasingly are exercising their rights on the job in the country, where they have few labor law protections and so are especially vulnerable to abuse. More than 100 workers recently joined SINTRAHO (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadoras del...
Colombia Marches Against Measures that Hurt Workers, Youth and Pensioners
Tens of thousands of Colombians have taken to the streets across the country today, simmering with anger over the government’s moves to cut wages and pensions, restrict the right to protest, hike energy prices and reward corporations with tax cuts, among other...
![In Our Own Words: Women Workers Address Gender-Based Violence in Garment Factories in Cambodia](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Gender.Cambodia-report-cover-2.6.19.jpg)
In Our Own Words: Women Workers Address Gender-Based Violence in Garment Factories in Cambodia
While studies have shown the prevalence of violence against women at home and in their communities, no comprehensive data exists to document the extent of gender-based violence (GBV) at work. To better understand GBV at work, 23 activists and female leaders of workers...
![In Our Own Words: Women Address Gender-Based Violence in Garment Factories in Indonesia](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Gender.Indonesia-report-cover.6.19.jpg)
In Our Own Words: Women Address Gender-Based Violence in Garment Factories in Indonesia
While studies have shown the prevalence of violence against women at home and in their communities, no comprehensive data exists to document the extent of gender-based violence (GBV) at work. To better understand GBV at work, 17 activists and female leaders of workers...
![The High Cost of Low Wages in Haiti (2019)](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Haiti.High-Cost-of-Wages-2019-Report-Cover.4.19.jpg)
The High Cost of Low Wages in Haiti (2019)
Haitian garment workers face increasing difficulty in covering basic expenditures as prices soar while wages hover far below the cost of living. Download here in Creole. Download here in English. Download here in French.
![The Benefits of Collective Bargaining for Women: A Case Study of Morocco](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Morocco.The-Benefits-of-Collective-Bargaining-for-WomenA-Case-Study-of-Morocco.cover_-pdf.jpg)
The Benefits of Collective Bargaining for Women: A Case Study of Morocco
This study by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and Solidarity Center finds women workers in Morocco’s fertile Meknes region are making big gains in gender equality on the job through their union, the Confédération Démocratique du Travail (CDT)....
![There Is No Work We Haven’t Done: Forced Labor of Public-Sector Employees in Uzbekistan](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Uzbekistan.Forced-Labor-in-the-Public-Sector-Report.English.1.2019.jpg)
There Is No Work We Haven’t Done: Forced Labor of Public-Sector Employees in Uzbekistan
Although the government of Uzbekistan has made progress on ending child and adult forced labor in the cotton fields after more than a decade of international pressure, a new report finds that forced labor remains rampant in other arenas of Uzbek life, affecting...
![Working for Peace in North-East Nigeria](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Nigeria.Cover_.Working-for-Peace-report.11.2018.jpg)
Working for Peace in North-East Nigeria
This report analyzes the impact of violence in North-East Nigeria, where teachers, health care professionals and civil servants were the victimized by insurgents targeting symbols of state authority. The report includes recommendations for government and worker...