Worker rights and human rights advocates are urging multinational corporate fashion brands to commit to a binding successor agreement that will continue the pathbreaking work of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a landmark agreement that made...
The Solidarity Center works to ensure all workers, such as Bangladesh garment workers, have access to their legal workplace rights. Credit: Solidarity Center/Balmi Chisim
The Solidarity Center works to ensure that all workers have rights protected under international law and have access to effective legal remedies if those rights are violated.
The Solidarity Center works with workers, unions and other organizations around the world to rewrite the rules so workers can form unions and take collective action to promote their rights and be free from exploitation. The Solidarity Center has assisted workers and unions in countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Guatemala, Myanmar, Thailand and Ukraine to analyze legislation and develop strategies to defeat repressive legislation and promote laws and regulations consistent with international law.
Our work supports novel litigation at the national and regional levels to expand rights to workers and unions. For example, the Solidarity Center has supported constitutional litigation to ensure domestic workers in South Africa have access to the national workers compensation fund, and is working with lawyers in Bangladesh to support workers in challenging the use of false criminal charges to dismiss and silence workers. The Solidarity Center also supports efforts in regional human rights courts to promote the rights of informal economy workers in Africa and to hold governments accountable for anti-union violence in the Americas.
The Solidarity Center also is working to build accountability for multinational firms in global supply chains that remain largely beyond the reach of the law in countries where their suppliers are located and in their home countries. The lack of accountability is a major driver of worker exploitation in supply chains, including wage theft, unsafe workplaces, violence against workers and attacks against unions.
Educating workers on their rights and how to use them in the workplace is also a key component of our work. Through the International Lawyers Assisting Workers Network (ILAW), we are building a legal community and increasing the capacity of lawyers and activists to effectively use domestic, regional and international laws and institutions. The ILAW Network brings together more than 400 lawyers in some 55 countries.
Two Women Union Leaders Arrested in Myanmar; Total Now 20+
Two union leaders in Myanmar recently have been arrested for their participation in pro-democracy rallies, and unions worldwide are calling for governments to halt trade and other financial support that provide backing to the country’s military government. The total...
Belarus Steps Up Repression Against Union Workers
Three union leaders and a worker rights activist were arrested in Belarus, and the government is proposing a new law tightening restrictions on public gatherings as it ramps up repression against unions and their members who are demanding free and fair elections and...
![The High Cost of Low Wages in Haiti Living Wage Estimate for Export Apparel Workers (April 2014)](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/The-High-Cost-of-Low-Wages-in-Haiti.3014.jpg)
The High Cost of Low Wages in Haiti Living Wage Estimate for Export Apparel Workers (April 2014)
Despite a 45 percent increase in apparel exports since the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the women and men who sew T-shirts and jeans primarily destined for the U.S. market barely earn enough to pay for their lunch and transportation to work, a new Solidarity Center...
![The High Cost of Low Wages in Haiti Living Wage Estimate for Export Apparel Workers (April 2014)](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/The-High-Cost-of-Low-Wages-in-Haiti.3014.jpg)
The High Cost of Low Wages in Haiti
Living Wage Estimate for Export Apparel Workers (April 2014)
Despite a 45 percent increase in apparel exports since the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the women and men who sew T-shirts and jeans primarily destined for the U.S. market barely earn enough to pay for their lunch and transportation to work, a new Solidarity Center...
![Asia Network: Empowering Workers, Creating Safe Workplaces](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Report-cover.ANROEV-OSH.jpg)
Asia Network: Empowering Workers, Creating Safe Workplaces
Millions of workers in Asia often risk their lives in unsafe and unhealthy workplaces. Through its network of more than 200 regional and national organizations in 14 Asian countries, including sector, national and global unions, ANROEV achieved concrete, worker-led...
![Discrimination and Denationalization in the Dominican Republic](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Discrimination-and-Denationalization-in-the-Dominican-Republic.jpg)
Discrimination and Denationalization in the Dominican Republic
A September 2013 Dominican court ruling taking away citizenship from many migrants means they will be excluded from any activity that requires official identification, including working in the formal sector, attending school, opening a bank account, accessing health...
![Labor Movement Responses to International Labor Migration in Sri Lanka](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Labor-Movement-Responses-to-International-Labor-Migratio-in-Sri-Lanka.report.January-2014.jpg)
Labor Movement Responses to International Labor Migration in Sri Lanka
This report looks at the political and economic context within which Sri Lankan unions have attempted to respond to migrant workers, unions' role in the key governance and policy mechanisms that pertain to labor migration, and the way the Sri Lankan labor movement...
![Restriction and Solidarity in the New South Africa](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Restriction-and-Solidarity-in-the-New-South-Africa-report.January-2014.jpg)
Restriction and Solidarity in the New South Africa
This report look at South African labor’s complicated engagement with migrant workers by examining the migration policy debate, labor’s response to the xenophobic attacks of 2008 and two organizing campaign in the agricultural sector. It sheds light on how labor...