As the novel coronavirus spreads, unions and worker associations around the world are demanding safe and healthy conditions for workers who must remain on the job, and that they be compensated during forced work site closures and not laid off to ensure high returns...
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Domestic Workers Left out in the Cold
Domestic workers—at great risk during the pandemic crisis—are mobilizing to secure rapid relief and protection says the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF). This International Domestic Workers Day, more than 60 million of the world’s estimated 67 million...
‘Hunger or the Virus’: COVID-19 & Informal Workers
Among the world’s most vulnerable workers are those marginalized within their economies and societies, namely the women and labor migrants who predominate in the informal economy, where they perform valuable work in low-wage jobs as janitors, domestic workers,...
Migrant Workers Essential Workers Not Only in COVID-19
Sabina, a domestic worker from Bangladesh, has worked in Jordan for the past eight years, sending money home each month to her mother, sister and 11-year-old son who rely on her to survive. But with the COVID-19 crisis, she has been out of work for more than a month....
Domestic Workers: Healing, Growing, Taking Action
As long-time union activists helping domestic workers form unions and get a voice on the job, Andrea Del Carmen Morales Pérez and Librada Maciel found themselves fighting burnout—from stress, from nonstop work and from unrecognized trauma they carried with them for...
Honduran Domestic Workers Join Newly Formed Union
Domestic workers in Honduras increasingly are exercising their rights on the job in the country, where they have few labor law protections and so are especially vulnerable to abuse. More than 100 workers recently joined SINTRAHO (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadoras del...
Workers Rights Key to Ending Trafficking
Imagine the population of New York City. Then triple that number. That’s how many people around the world are being robbed of their freedom through human trafficking—24.9 million. While “trafficking” seems to imply movement across borders, some 77 percent of those...
A First of Its Kind: Kyrgyz Migrant Workers’ Union
Since the start of 2019, more than 2,000 migrant workers from Kyrgyzstan have joined together to protect their rights abroad through the new Migrant Workers’ Union. On October 17, more than 100 union delegates came together in the town of Isfana, Kyrgyzstan, for the...
New Domestic Worker Organization in Ukraine
In Ukraine, domestic workers formed the country’s first organization for domestic workers, including childcare workers, this week. The organization’s formation is part of a growing global movement to assert the rights of this vast, mostly hidden and primarily female...
Domestic Workers in Mexico Win Landmark Rights Law
Legislation requiring written contracts, paid vacation and annual bonuses for domestic workers passed Mexico’s House and Senate and is expected to be signed into law by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The landmark law, which also prohibits employers from hiring...
Kuwait Union Opens Doors to All Migrant Workers
The Kuwait Trade Union Federation (KTUF) this week celebrated the relaunch of a migrant worker office within its headquarters to help address legal cases related to wage theft or other forms of exploitation brought by migrant workers, including domestic workers, in...
Kenya, Kuwait Unions Sign Migrant Workers’ Agreement
The Central Organization of Trade Unions-Kenya (COTU-K) and the Kuwait Trade Union Federation (KTUF) signed a cooperative agreement last week in Kuwait City, formalizing the federations’ effort to jointly address issues affecting workers who migrate from Kenya to...
Marie Constant: Empowering Domestic Workers in Lebanon
Marie Constant has worked as a domestic worker in Lebanon since 1997. Originally from Madagascar, Constant has been fortunate to have a good employer. But most migrant domestic workers are not so lucky. "In general, domestic workers [must] work from morning until...
Make Every Job a Good Job: Workers Achieve Decent Work Together
Around the world, workers, their unions and other associations are striving to promote the rights of working people at their jobs and in their everyday lives. While every job has value, not all jobs are “good jobs.” Millions of jobs around the world do not offer the...
Migrant Workers & Children Exploited in Kazakhstan
Workers who migrate from Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan for jobs often do not receive their wages, are forced to work in unsafe and abusive conditions and even are kidnapped and held against their will in forced labor, according to a new report. “Invisible and Exploited in...
Domestic Workers Lead the Change
Domestic workers are at the forefront of change in many countries, highlighted by the adoption of the Decent Work for Domestic Workers convention by the International Labor Organization, and the creation of the International Domestic Workers Federation. Yet this...
Domestic Workers Fight for Their Rights in Kenya
Domestic workers are some of the world’s most vulnerable workers, comprising a significant part of the global workforce in informal employment. Lucy Nyangasi, 26, a domestic worker in Nairobi, is one of some 67 million workers who labor in households around the world,...
Racial Equality Tops Domestic Workers Meeting in Brazil
Some 40 domestic workers from 17 countries across North and South America and the Caribbean shared organizing tactics, hammered out resolutions and participated in Solidarity Center training on gender-based violence at work at a recent conference in São Paulo, Brazil....
Ensuring Access to Justice for Workers in Forced Labor
When Fauzia Muthoni arrived in Qatar from Kenya to work as a receptionist and earn money to support her family, the labor agent traveling with her informed Muthoni the job was in Saudi Arabia and escorted her to another plane. She tried calling her family, but...
Forum Opens on Promoting Women Workers’ Rights
To promote the rights of women workers, especially women domestic workers and women farm workers, it is essential to seek solutions to build women's capacity to defend their rights to equality, decent work and an end to violence and abuse, according to Hind Cherrouk,...