Media Highlights
Workers Protest Factory Shutdowns
Roughly 2,000 garment workers protested yesterday outside three factories after the owner abruptly shut down operations and fled, leaving them without severance or pay for the month of January. The Solidarity Center’s William Conklin suggested that factories be required to put down a deposit that can be used to pay severance for workers.
The Bangladesh Sustainability Compact: An Effective Tool for Promoting Workers’ Rights?
The impetus for the Bangladesh Sustainability Compact was the Rana Plaza industrial disaster, which took the lives of roughly 1,200 garment workers. The compact required the fulfillment of several time-bound commitments by the Bangladesh government—labor law reform, protection of the right to freedom of association and ensuring fire and building safety. Jeffrey Vogt argues the compact has not been effective for much of its four years. [READ MORE]
How Garment Workers Used Fashion on the Picket Line
David Welsh, currently country director for the Solidarity Center in Southeast Asia, has worked in both Bangladesh and Cambodia. He says in both countries, “it’s the same brands and the same export markets, primarily the U.S., North America, and the EU,” and “the same 15 to 20 brands monopolize the market and set the conditions worldwide.”
FIVE YEARS ON FROM TAZREEN, WORKERS’ PROGRESS AT RISK
Solidarity Center Director of Asia programs, Timothy Ryan, says that the Bangladesh government and industry’s reaction to the empowerment of garment workers and their unions runs the risk of harming not only Bangladesh garment workers but the very trade deals that make the country’s garment and textile sector its economic engine.
Interview with Rose Omamo from Kenya and Cida Trajano from Brazil [Radio]
Solidarity Center Director of Trade Union Strengthening Sarah McKenzie introduces two women union leaders from Brazil and Kenya visiting the U.S. on a 20-member, all-women Solidarity Center Exchange Program—Omamo, general secretary of the Amalgamated Union of Kenya Metalworkers, and Trajano dos Santos, president of the Brazil garment workers union, Confederação dos Trabalhadores nas Indústrias do Vestuário (CNTV).
Why Southeast Asia’s Rising Minimum Wages Could Push Workers Out Of Factories, In A Good Way
William Conklin, Cambodia country director to union organization Solidarity Center, believes it would be in the best interest of Cambodia and other Southeast Asian nations to start thinking about how its economy could expand or transition away from a job sector based primarily on minimum wage jobs.
Dialogue as a Tool to Strengthen Youth Leadership in the Creation of Dignified and Decent Work [Spanish]
Samantha Tate contributed to the FES monthly magazine, InterQuorum, which focused the entire edition on youth and decent work in Latin America. Her article appears in the print and online versions, in Spanish.
Labor Law Reform Meeting Calls for Freedom of Association
Jennifer Kuhlman, country director of the Solidarity Center, and Timothy Ryan, the organizations’s regional program director, said the government has a unique opportunity to reform the Bangladesh Labor Act and Export Processing Zones Authority Act expressing hopes that it could be done through broad-based input from stakeholders and the people, building consensus and creating a more just and reliable legal framework.
Sisters in solidarity: the communal care of domestic workers in the Middle East
The Domestic Workers Solidarity Network in Jordan is the first initiative of its kind in the country and one of few in the region. The network, whose motto is “Sisters in Solidarity,” aims to serve and support domestic workers through awareness-raising, legal assistance and roundtables in coordination with the Adalah Center for Human Rights Studies.
Organizers: Baltimore Seafood Business Masks Shocking Labor Abuses
It’s no surprise that Phillips doesn’t want to talk about its South Asia seafood operations — few international seafood corporations do, according to Tim Ryan, Asia regional program director at the Washington, D.C.-based worker advocacy group Solidarity Center.
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Media Mentions is a daily digest of major media coverage of issues that affect workers, workers’ rights, and workers’ organizations overseas, discusses the impact of globalization, or mentions the work of the Solidarity Center.