Media Highlights
U.S. Senate Looks at Way to Address ‘Modern Slavery’
Shawna Bader-Blau, executive director of the Solidarity Center, testified at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. She said the United States has a real opportunity to lead the fight against worker exploitation, especially with regard to upcoming negotiations on the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement. “Our diplomacy must be much more robust and aggressive on tackling the root causes” of forced labor, Bader-Blau told the committee, stating her belief that “it’s not too much to ask that we see real systematic changes” in how countries operate before agreeing to anything in trade negotiations.
No World Bank Probe of Labor Abuses in Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan continued using forced labor, including children, for the country’s recent cotton harvest, according to a recent report by the Uzbek-German Forum, notes the Solidarity Center, a member of the Cotton Campaign.
Investigation Appears Stalled in Cambodia’s Garment Sector Killings
A year after two dozen large fashion brands wrote the Cambodian government requesting investigation into the killing by security forces of 5 garment workers protesting low wages, there has been no investigation or compensation for families of the deceased according to Dave Welsh, Solidarity Center-Cambodia.
Five Years after Earthquake, Haitian Workers Still Struggle with Low Wages
Five years after the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti, workers are still struggling to pay for transportation, food and housing, as the cost of living rises exponentially while wages fail to keep pace, writes the Solidarity Center’s Tula Connell.
Do Santa’s Elves a Favor: Support Their Labor Rights (opinion)
In a major victory for Cambodian garment workers and their allies last year European brands, including H&M and Zara, pledged a pay increase for garment workers at supplier factories. David Welsh, director of Solidarity Center programs in Cambodia, together with Cambodian factory workers are calling for American brands to follow suit.
Critics Say Conditions Aren’t Improving in Chinese Toy Factories
Earl Brown, labor lawyer and China program director at the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center, argued that “social auditing is like staging Shakespeare’s Hamlet without the prince of Denmark.”
Gildan Workers in Haiti, Honduras Complain of Harassment, Pay Too Meager to Live on
In Haiti, the minimum wage has been, until this year, 200 gourdes a day (or $4.92), and 300 gourdes for piecework ($7.48). (The basic rate rose to 225 gourdes, or $5.61, this year.) In contrast, the Solidarity Center estimates a living wage in Port-au-Prince is about $28 a day.
Gulf Countries: Increase Migrant Worker Protection
Labor ministers from Gulf and Asian countries meeting on November 26 and 27, 2014, should improve labor law protection, reform abusive immigration policies and increase dialogue with trade unions and nongovernmental groups, 90 human rights organizations and unions (among them, the Solidarity Center) said in a written statement.
Pilot Project to Boost Nutrition for Cambodian Garment Workers
“It’s not just increasing the monetary amount of the minimum wage, but looking at subsidizing where most of those expenses go to, and, currently, most of those expenses go to sub-standard housing and food for sub-standard nutrition that’s provided to workers,” said David Welsh, Solidarity Center Cambodia program director.
Union Leaders Given Audience in Parliament
While the decision for next year’s floor salary lies with the Ministry of Labor’s Labor Advisory Committee (LAC), not the National Assembly, a larger support base for raised wages could help sway members of the committee to agree upon a number that unions find suitable, said Dave Welsh, country director for labor rights group Solidarity Center.
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