As Nepal rebuilds two years after a major earthquake killed thousands of people and displaced millions, the country has an opportunity to achieve more equitable economic development by laying the foundation for an environment that fosters good jobs that sustain...
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Empowering Women at Work Focus of High-Level UN Meeting
Hundreds of high-level government delegates at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) meeting at the United Nations in New York this month will for the first time discuss women’s economic empowerment and the role of labor unions as core to achieving women’s...
‘Without Worker Rights, All Other Rights Are in Jeopardy’
Labor rights are key to all human rights—and ensuring that the global human rights community champion worker rights is essential to addressing the many economic and political challenges throughout the world, according to panelists who spoke today at a United Nations...
Women Nearly Half of Labor Migrants in Africa
An estimated 998,000 African migrants entered South Africa between 2011 and 2015, says Mondli Hlatshwayo, coordinator with the Center for Education Rights and Transformation at the University of Johannesburg, where he researches community and trade union education,...
ILO Forced Labor Protocol in Effect Today
When the employer of a migrant domestic worker takes her passport and refuses to return it if she seeks to leave, that is forced labor. When a family works at a brick kiln to pay off a debt, their children prevented from attending school, that is forced labor. When...
Building Alliances to Challenge Corporate Power
Women, people of color, indigenous and other disenfranchised and marginalized groups have been hit especially hard by the increasing concentration of transnational corporate power and escalating global economic inequality—but a new report showcases how women and...
5 Union Organizers Imprisoned in Cambodia Released Today
Five leaders of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW) in Cambodia were released from detention today after spending nearly a week in prison for seeking to assist striking garment factory workers who sought their support. The Solidarity Center legal team...
Norway Ratification Boosts Fight against Modern Slavery
The following is crossposted from Equal Times. On November 18, 2015, Norway ratified the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Forced Labor Protocol, which strengthens and updates the 1930 Forced Labor Convention (Convention 29) by adding new measures to prevent,...
‘The Nobel Prize Is for Labor Movements around the World’
The Tunisian General Labor Union (Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail, UGTT), a longtime Solidarity Center partner, was at the forefront of the four organizations that recently won the Nobel Peace Prize, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler said today. In a...
‘I Was a Garment Worker and I Know Exploitation’
The “Made in Jordan” label is familiar to U.S. consumers shopping for shirts, jeans and other clothes. Mervat Jumhawi, a Jordanian union organizer, is actively ensuring the largely migrant workforce that cuts and sews these garments does so in safe conditions,...
Good Jobs, Decent Work—Key to UN’s New 15-Year Goals
A vigil tonight at the United Nations kicks off events around the world body’s broad new 17-point agenda that aims in part to end extreme poverty, eradicate hunger and ensure clean water and sanitation. The 193 UN member states have debated the Sustainable Development...
‘We Are Here to Denounce All Forms of Child Slavery’
Saying that “168 million children are producing wealth, producing clothes, producing shoes, the things that you and I use,” child rights advocate Kailash Satyarthi told a crowd gathered yesterday at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.: “We are here to say that we...
Solidarity Center Launches Georgia Worker Rights Project
A new Solidarity Center project in Georgia to strengthen respect for worker rights through union, government and employer engagement will ensure the voice of workers is “a critical part of policymaking” so that “the benefits of economic growth are shared,” says...
Unions Urge ILO to Take up Gender-Based Workplace Violence
Violence against women takes many forms, and can happen in the home, in public spaces—and on the job. At the workplace, 35 percent of women worldwide have experienced violence. This November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, unions...
Forced Labor: Panel Spotlights Migrant Worker Plight in Mideast
Migrant workers to the Arabian Gulf states are rarely covered by labor law and generally denied the ability to exercise fundamental human rights, including freedom of association, which makes them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, said panelists at a...
Four South African Unions Tackle Gender Inequality
Each day this week, leading up to International Women’s Day March 8, the Solidarity Center is highlighting an example of how women and their unions are taking action to improve women’s lives on the job, in their unions and in their communities. Unions around the...
Indonesian Unions Hold Two-Day National Strike
Hundreds of thousands of Indonesian workers started a two-day national strike today demanding the government institute a fair minimum wage, end rampant employer violations of labor outsourcing and speed up implementation of a universal health care law. Several unions...
Workshop Strategic Alliances for Working Women’s Rights: Unions and NGOs
Workshop Strategic Alliances for Working Women’s Rights: Unions and NGOs Panelists • Evangelina Argûeta Chinchilla, Coordinator, General Workers Confederation (CGT), and FESITRATEMASH, Honduras • Julia Quiñonez Amparan, Coordinator, Comitè Fronterizo de Obreros/as...
Ukraine: Worker Rights Under Threat as Democracy Dwindles
Freedom of association and the ability of civil society organizations to fully function in Ukraine are in jeopardy as the country increasingly moves away from democracy. Only international attention and solidarity have slowed these disturbing trends. “There is...
AIDS: Workplace Partnerships Have Impact
For the third time in as many months Hope’s 12-year-old daughter was sick. Hope (name changed), a domestic worker in Zimbabwe’s capital city, Harare, requested and received emergency leave in order to travel to her rural home, where her daughter lived with relatives....