Workers who risked their health to provide essential services during the pandemic joined with actors, global union leaders and policymakers in a first-of-its-kind worldwide gathering to share their experiences and demand a response that urgently and effectively...
The Solidarity Center assists workers in the informal economy, such as market vendors in Zimbabwe, come together to assert their rights and raise living standards. Credit: ZCIEA
Some 2 billion people work in the informal sector as domestic workers, taxi drivers, and street vendors, many of them women workers. Informal economy work now comprises the majority of jobs in many countries and is increasing worldwide. Although informal economy workers can create up to half of a country’s gross national product, most have no access to health care, sick leave or support when they lose their jobs, and they have little power to advocate for living wages and safe and secure work.
The Solidarity Center is part of a broad-based movement in dozens of countries to help workers in the informal economy come together to assert their rights and raise living standards. For instance, three affiliates of the Central Organization of Trade Unions-Kenya (COTU-K), a Solidarity Center partner, signed agreements with informal worker associations to unionize the workers, enabling them to access to the country’s legal protections for formal-sector employees.
Find out more about informal workers gaining power by joining together in unions and worker associations in this Solidarity Center-supported publication, Informal Workers and Collective Action: A Global Perspective.
Bolt Delivery Drivers Strike in Ukraine after 50% Wage Cut
Some 70 Bolt food delivery drivers in Ukraine are waging a digital strike after their wages were reduced by 50 percent, a move that built on the drivers’ discontent with lack of health coverage and cutbacks in bonus payments, a growing global phenomenon. The platform...
West Africa Union Health Care Campaign Targets Informal Sector
In Nigeria, through a coordinated campaign by the Organization of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA), West African Informal Sector Workers Network Working Group, Federation of Informal Workers’ Organizations of Nigeria (FIWON), Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) and Trade...
![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...