Millions of workers in the global economy have been disenfranchised from their rights, either tacitly or deliberately by governments, exacerbating “global inequality, poverty, violence and child and forced labor,” says Maina Kiai, United Nations Special Rapporteur on...
Search Results
Building Alliances to End Gender-Based Violence at Work
Gender-based violence (GBV) is one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world—and yet not enough is done to prevent it, especially at the workplace. “Without gender equality, we cannot have worker rights, and without worker rights, we cannot have...
Trafficking Report Highlights Uzbekistan Abuses
Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, two countries where forced labor in cotton harvests is rampant, have been downgraded to the lowest ranking in the U.S. State Department’s 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report released this morning. The report also downgraded Myanmar (Burma)...
Share Your Views on Worker Rights with the United Nations
Update: The survey is now available in Spanish and French. La encuesta está disponible en francés y español. L'enquête est disponible en français et espagnol. The United Nations Special Rapporteur is partnering with the Solidarity Center to research a report on the...
UN Consultation on Worker Rights Gathers Global Experts
More than two dozen worker, union and human rights experts from around the world gathered last week in Kenya to discuss some of the most intractable global labor issues: informalization of work, gender inequality, migrant worker rights and the erosion of workers’...
Pakistan Women MPs to Push for Decent Work in Brick Kilns
The effort to secure decent work in Pakistan’s brick kiln industry took a step forward in recent weeks when 18 women parliamentarians vowed to take up the issue in the Punjab Legislature. The move followed their participation in a discussion organized by the...
Report: Transforming Women’s Work
From domestic workers in New York City to garment workers in Bangladesh, women coming together to organize, demand fair treatment and address gender discrimination is critical to realizing women’s rights and economic justice. A new report from the AFL-CIO, the Rutgers...
Draft Labor Law Must Be Dropped: Cambodia Union Leaders
Union leaders are asking the Cambodia Royal Government and National Assembly to suspend adoption of a pending trade union law because of restrictions it would place on the freedom to form unions, collectively bargain and strike. Following a strategy meeting today...
One Man’s Evolution to Understanding Gender Inequality
Nhlanhla Mabizela says he first truly grasped the meaning of gender inequality on a winter day in the dusty streets of Alexandra Township in post-apartheid South Africa. Cutting through an alley surrounded by houses made of iron scrap and plastic sheets, Mabizela and...
Swazi Union Receives 2015 AFL-CIO Human Rights Award
Over the past year, Swazi workers have not been deterred from taking part in union meetings even though the gatherings were repeatedly broken up by police. They turned out in large numbers for the annual May Day rally, although they were threatened with arrest if they...
Speeches
SHAWNA BADER-BLAU, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Speech at the 28th triennial convention of the Office and Professional Employees International (OPEIU) in Las Vegas, Nevada, on June 10, 2019. “On Our Terms: How We Redefine Democracy and Reverse Exploitation through Social...
Let’s Create a Global Civil Rights Movement
With a rousing call to action, Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau urged the more than 200 participants in the final session of the Solidarity Center's Labor Migration: Who Benefits? conference to "exercise our voice for a bigger push for global...
Labor Migration Conference Starts Monday!
Human rights lawyer Preeda Tongcumnum is among the more than 200 migrant worker advocates gathering in Bogar, Indonesia, this week to take part in the Solidarity Center labor migration conference. As assistant to the secretary general at the Human Rights and...
Unions in Asia, Gulf Sign Migrant Worker Agreement
Trade unions from across Asia and in Arab Gulf countries signed a landmark memorandum of understanding (MOU) this week that promotes joint action to create a safe and rights-based environment for migrant workers. The first-ever such cross-regional agreement also...
Labor Migration: A Solidarity Center Conference
In Malaysia, up to 40 percent of workers are migrants from other countries. Over in Bangladesh, more than 600,000 workers migrate each year for jobs, and at least 5 million Bangladeshis currently work in other countries. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries on...
ILO Report: Trafficking and Forced Labor Are Unacceptable
Global demand for the services of domestic workers, including household workers, caregivers and cooks, has been steadily rising in recent years. Yet as the International Labor Organization (ILO) shows in a new report on migrants from South Asia, domestic workers,...
Economic Growth without Jobs Fuels Migration
Governments of migrants’ countries of origin could be doing much more to harness the phenomenon of labor migration toward inclusive growth, according to a new report that investigated high-migration communities in Indonesia. The study, which examined the role of labor...
ILO: Precarious Work Rises, Incomes Fall around the World
More than 60 percent of workers worldwide, predominantly women, are in temporary, part-time or short-term jobs in which wages are falling, a growing trend that is fueling global income inequality and poverty, according to an International Labor Organization (ILO)...
Fact Sheets & Advisories
Fact Sheets Global Garment and Textile Industries: Workers, Rights and Working Conditions (April 2023) Bargaining for Decent Work and Beyond (Honduras), May 2022 Care Work and the Global Economy, February 2022 Domestic Violence is a Worker Rights Issue, February 2022...
“My Work Is Decent Work and I Want Decent Pay”
Myrtle Witbooi spent decades toiling as a domestic worker in South Africa and later built on her experience to become a national and global leader for domestic worker rights. Now general secretary of the South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union...