To mark 25 years in Mexico, the Solidarity Center convened a forum on the country’s labor reform process and staged a photo exhibition at the Mueso Memoria y Tolerencia. The exhibit, Reflejos de Lucha: Miradas sobre el movimiento laboral en América del Norte (Reflections of Struggle: Insights into the North American Labor Movement), documents the democratization of labor relations in Mexico and the struggle of the independent labor movement for a more just and equitable global economy. Photographers Kevin Lara, Arturo Left, Ulises Vidal, Noboru Yorugi with special guest David Bacon, an author and photojournalist specializing in labor union issues, contributed work to the show.
A quarter century since joining the fight for worker rights in Mexico, the Solidarity Center celebrated the progress made amid reflections on the historic moment workers and their allies face in the country.
“The most important and promising independent union organizing in the world is happening right here, right now in Mexico,” Shawna Bader-Blau, Solidarity Center executive director, told those gathered in Mexico City for the anniversary celebration.
To mark the occasion, the Solidarity Center organized a week of activities to honor the work of partners from the independent Mexican trade union movement, strengthen transnational solidarity, examine the challenges that lie ahead and build a path toward a more just Mexico. From May 29 to June 1, trade union leaders and workers from across the country joined scholars and activists from Mexico and the United States, as well as representatives from both countries’ governments, to continue the collective work to ensure that recent labor law reforms and trade agreements put workers’ interests at the forefront.
After three years of historic change since the reforms, the emergence of a new generation of labor leaders demonstrates that Mexican workers hold it within themselves to build an inclusive and responsive labor movement. The Solidarity Center proudly recognized their achievements.
“It’s an honor to join together with so many brothers and sisters, with so many organizations that just a year ago did not exist and who are now working to strengthen freedom of association and collective bargaining in Mexico,” said Paolo Marinaro, Mexico country program director, speaking to allies as he introduced an international forum on the labor reforms held during the week.
Over its 25 years of work in Mexico, the Solidarity Center has supported grassroots organizing and lifted authentic worker voices to help dismantle a system that for too long ignored the plight of workers and catered to the interests of the rich and powerful. Today, more so than any time in the country’s history, the Mexican labor movement represents the full spectrum of Mexican workers. Over the course of the week, the diversity of Mexico’s new labor leaders did not go unnoticed.
“The Solidarity Center is honored to work with young workers, women-led unions, emerging and established democratic leadership, organizations formed by migrant and indigenous workers, and others who are revitalizing the Mexican labor movement and inspiring the global labor movement,” Bader-Blau said.
Mexico’s new and more representative labor unions have won path-breaking victories that have inspired a new wave of labor organizing in the country. With Solidarity Center support, in just the last year over 20,000 Mexican workers have negotiated strong contracts with historic wage increases and workplace protections. From St. Gobain workers in Cuautla, Morelos, to 3M workers in San Luis Potosí, the new independent labor movement continues to bring tangible benefits to a workforce long held in check through collusion between employers, the government and corrupt unions.
Despite these important victories, the promise of the labor reforms has not been fully realized. For that reason, the Solidarity Center begins its 26th year in Mexico committed to helping Mexican workers build the power necessary to create a more just economy and a more prosperous country.
A milestone convening in Tashkent last week brought together stakeholders from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan government ministries and agencies, non-governmental and civil society sectors, and international organizations as a first step in developing a joint action plan to combat forced labor and advance worker rights in the region. Worldwide, 28 million people were reportedly trapped in forced labor in 2021.
The May 22 conference highlighted labor inspectorates’ role in protecting worker rights and combating forced labor in the region. Solidarity Center supported the event, which was organized in collaboration with “Partnership in Action,” an international NGO network of more than 30 Central Asian organizations, Kyrgyzstan’s Migrant Workers Union’s partner organization “Insan-Leylek” and Uzbekistan’s Istiqbolli Avlod.
“There is a crucial need for regional cooperation in labor inspections, because migration patterns are constantly changing,” says “Insan-Leylek” leader Gulnara Derbisheva.
Recognizing the importance of collective action, the conference hosts provided a forum for representatives of labor inspectorates from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to share their expertise and experiences within their respective countries. Government representatives from each of those countries reiterated their commitment to labor inspectorates working cooperatively with one another and with the region’s worker rights defenders to fight labor exploitation and promote safer working environments and dignified work for all.
Topics included international standards related to the work of inspectorates, issues surrounding forced labor in Central Asia and the importance of labor inspections given the region’s unique challenges. Participants identified a severe shortage of labor inspectors—Solidarity Center research finds that 250 labor inspectors oversee 280,000 legal entities employing 6.5 million people in Kazakhstan, 30 inspectors oversee thousands of enterprises in Kyrgyzstan and 315 inspectors oversee 578,000 registered entities in Uzbekistan—and discussed restrictions on inspectorates’ effectiveness. Although the International Labor Organization (ILO) standards specify that inspections be conducted without prior notification, all three countries require prior consent and advance notice for inspections and exclude small businesses from inspection mandates. Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are currently considering legislative changes to rectify such loopholes.
“The outcomes of the conference have the potential to transform labor protection, ensuring safer and fairer working conditions for everyone in the region,” says Solidarity Center Europe and Central Asia Regional Program Director Rudy Porter.
According to ILO data, some 2.3 million women and men around the world succumb to work-related accidents or diseases every year, including 340 million victims of occupational accidents and 160 million victims of work-related illnesses. The ILO reports 11,0000 fatal occupational accidents annually in the 12-member states comprising the Commonwealth of Independent States—Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan—but points to “gross underreporting” of occupational accidents and diseases in the region.
To raise awareness of the Kyrgyzstan’s responsibility to improve workplace safety and strengthen workplace inspections, the Solidarity Center last year launched a program to increase the visibility of the country’s Labor Inspectorate among workers and employers through education seminars and other consultative fora.
Significant progress has been made. Kyrgyzstan’s Labor Inspectorate is reporting that in 2022, as compared to the year prior:
The number of identified violations increased from 18 to 1,402
The value of fines imposed on employers increased from $598 to $13,126
The amount of compensation paid to workers killed or injured in workplace accidents increased from $176,723 to $380,501
The value of wages collected by sickened or injured workers increased from $4,023 to $103,039
The number of employers trained on Kyrgyzstan’s safety standards increased from none to 74.
The right to a safe and healthy work environment place is a fundamental right of every worker. Developing partnership between Kyrgyzstan’s unions, government and employers is yielding results by better capturing and addressing safety violations, and ensuring compensation and wages to those who are sickened or injured on the job.
“The tripartite platform proved to be an exceedingly effective tool in ensuring that the voices of workers were heard by both employers and the government,” says Trade Union of Construction and Building Materials Workers Republican Committee Chair Eldiyar Karachalov.
To mark April 28, World Day for Safety and Health at Work, and in collaboration with unions, the Labor Inspectorate conducted a high-profile campaign to educate the public about issues surrounding safety at work and publicize the Labor Inspectorate’s new website and online form for reporting worker rights violations. Unions, with Solidarity Center support, contributed success stories, including on video for state television and social network distribution.
“[The Labor Inspectorate] helped me get the pay I was owed,” reports primary school teacher N.A. Usubalieva.
The Nigerian working group of a campaign led by the Organization of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA) is collaborating on a regional campaign demanding more investment by governments in the health of their citizens. OTUWA represents trade union national centers in the 15 West African countries comprising the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Addressing journalists at a public event in Abuja, Nigeria working group coordinator Dr. Ayegba Ojonugwa, last month warned that governments must increase health workers’ wages and improve their working conditions—including safety—to staunch the outflux of health workers from the beleaguered sector.
“We are here today to further advocate that health care is a human right,” said Ojonugwa, who noted that West Africa’s governments are not implementing the 15 percent minimum annual budgetary health allocation to which African heads of state agreed in the landmark 2001 Abuja Declaration. Currently, no country in the region achieves this percentage and Nigeria’s health care indicators are some of the worst in Africa—in part because medical professionals are in such short supply there.
In Nigeria, OTUWA’s “Health Care Is a Human Right” campaign—launched in Abuja in March 2021—is supported by the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), the National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) and labor federations Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC).
In the region, the campaign is supported by OTUWA’s affiliates together with many of their health sector unions. A 2020 survey of 700 health workers living in Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo provides a window into the region’s health-sector shortcomings and presents a raft of recommendations for ensuring the protection of health worker rights and effective, accessible health care for all.
From Bangladesh to Kyrgyzstan, Mexico and Sri Lanka, hundreds of thousands of workers and their families celebrated International Workers Day May 1, honoring the dignity of work and the accomplishments of the union movement in defending human rights, job stability, fair wages and safe workplaces. For workers in Philippines, the event took on special importance, as they mourned and protested the recent stabbing and murder of Alex Dolorosa, a BIEN paralegal and officer organizing BPO workers in Bacolod, vowing to continue his work.
Click here for our photo essay of May Day 2023 events by Solidarity Center allies around the globe.
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