Shawna Bader-Blau, Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau leads the Solidarity Center—the largest global worker rights organization based in the United States—and its 400-plus staff in headquarters and 35 field offices, and programs in more than 60 countries. Shawna...
Search Results
‘YES to Ratification of ILO C190!’
In June 2019, the International Labor Organization adopted Convention 190, along with Recommendation 206, the first global binding treaty to address gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) in the world of work. The treaty calls on governments, employers and unions...
Women & Their Unions Stand Strong during COVID-19
In Tunisia, 150 women garment workers self-quarantined in their factory to manufacture desperately needed protective masks, churning out 50,000 a day as the COVID-19 crisis broke out. The South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU) reached an agreement...
COVID-19: Unions Mobilize Across Middle East/N. Africa
Across the Middle East and North Africa, unions and worker associations are mobilizing to educate workers about their rights during the COVID-19 crisis, provide them with resources to protect themselves and their families, and push for fair treatment at the workplace....
Union Women Rock 16 Days of Activism Against GBVH
During the recent 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, workers and their unions from Honduras to Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Nigeria and Bangladesh made big gains raising awareness about gender-based violence and harassment at work (GBVH) and demanding that...
Report: Call to Action for Rights of People on the Move
The freedom to speak, join unions and take part in community life are basic human rights that apply to all people—including migrant workers and refugees, panelists at a United Nations side event said this afternoon in New York City. “Migrant workers and refugees don’t...
Union Women Leaders Urge Nations: Ratify ILO C190
Women union leaders around the world have launched campaigns urging their governments to ratify Convention 190, a new global International Labor Organization (ILO) treaty to prevent and address violence and harassment in the world of work that includes gender-based...
New Radio Show in Jordan Showcases Worker Issues
Callers to a recent radio show about taxi workers in Jordan had many questions, including: Why are taxi drivers classified as independent contractors rather than as employees who are eligible for better wages and benefits? Why do Jordan’s laws prohibit taxi drivers...
MAY DAY 2019: STANDING UP FOR WORKER RIGHTS ACROSS THE GLOBE
From Haiti to Kenya, Nepal and Palestine, hundreds of thousands of workers and their families celebrated International Workers Day last week, honoring the dignity of work and the accomplishments of the labor movement in defending human rights, job stability, fair...
Video: Ending Gender Violence at Work with Collective Action
Seeking a job to support her family but lacking opportunity in her native Bangladesh, Shahida became a domestic worker far from her home. Beyond duties in her employer's home, she was forced to work at the houses of several of his relatives, giving her little time to...
16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence
On November 25, the Solidarity Center joins our allies around the world in launching 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. This event highlights the need to end violence against women and girls around the world and pass a global standard to address the...
Publications and Interviews
Shawna Bader-Blau No Rights, No Recovery: Toward a Worker-Centered, Post-Pandemic World, University of Pennsylvania Perry World House publication, A Fracturing World: The Future of Globalization, Fall 2022 Organizing Domestic Workers: The Unfinished Business of Labor...
Women in Media: 1 in 2 Experience Violence at Work
Nearly one in two women journalists have experienced sexual harassment, psychological abuse, online trolling and other forms of gender-based violence (GBV) while working—yet “up to three-quarters of media workplaces have no reporting or support mechanism,” says...
Myanmar Janitor Takes Pride in Keeping Factory Tidy
Daw Tin Tin Thein, 43, works in a factory just outside Yangon, Myanmar's capital, where workers ground and mold clay for building materials like floor and roof tiles. Thien, a janitor, beams with pride when she describe how she is responsible for "keeping the factory...
Decent Work Forum: ‘With a Union, We May Fight Together’
Ending human trafficking. Ensuring all employers treat workers fairly. Giving voice to migrant workers around the world. Creating a world in which women are treated equally to men. These are some of the broad goals participants at the Solidarity Center Forum on Decent...
Decent Work Forum: Sharing Strategies for Success
Following heartfelt rounds of songs on workers’ struggles and union solidarity, some 30 worker rights advocates launched the second day of the Forum on Decent Work for Agricultural Women and Domestic Workers. Discussions centered on the lack of migrant worker rights...
Kenya Union: Ban on Labor Recruiting Agencies Should Stay
The Central Organization of Trade Unions–Kenya (COTU-K) said the country’s recent decision to lift its ban on workers migrating to Qatar and Saudi Arabia for jobs is “ill advised,” and urges the government to keep the ban in place until the Ministry of Labor provides...
Joining Across Borders: Solidarity Center Celebrates 20!
Some 300 allies, coalition partners and sponsors of the Solidarity Center packed the Longview Gallery in Washington, D.C., last night to celebrate the organization’s 20th anniversary. The day began with a book launch and discussion on informal workers and collective...
Social Justice Unionism: Labor Can Make Change
“Informal workers are organizing and they will organize as long as there is injustice and oppression,” says Sue Schurman, distinguished professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers University. Opening a Solidarity Center book launch and panel...
Brazil, Kenya Women Leaders on Front Line of Change
When Rose Omamo started work in 1988 as a mechanic in a vehicle assembly plant in Kenya, she was one of two women in a workplace dominated by hundreds of men. Her employer refused to recognize the women’s basic requests, and even her union, the Amalgamated Union of...