Informal workers are routinely excluded from economic and political decision-making, and their work is systematically devalued and made invisible. The COVID-19 pandemic has only intensified these dynamics and has resulted in skyrocketing rates of domestic violence,...
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Joining to Achieve Goals Key for Migrant Workers in Central Asia
Central Asian workers who migrate for good paying jobs are navigating a rapidly changing environment due to shifts in economic options and political instability. At the same time, a growing number of women and young migrant workers, who face particular...
Report: With Unions, Workers Experience Less Heat Stress
Workers suffering from heat and other environmental stresses are best able to address the effects of climate change when they do so collectively, such as through their unions—especially when they can bargain collectively, according to Laurie Parsons of Royal Holloway,...
Safe, Fair Migration One Step Closer for Kyrgyzstan’s Workers
In a significant win for migrant worker rights organizations and the people they represent, Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov issued an August 28 decree that the republic join the UN's Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Legal Migration (GCM). The decree demonstrates...
Liberia: Firestone Contract Workers Win Union, Equity
In a significant win for equity on Firestone Liberia's rubber plantation in Harbel, more than 90 percent of contract workers voted Saturday to join the Firestone Agricultural Workers’ Union of Liberia (FAWUL). With 1,660 votes for FAWUL representation, contract...
UKRAINE: DOMESTIC WORKER SURVEY DOCUMENTS PERILS OF INFORMAL STATUS
A new survey—the first in Ukraine to evaluate domestic workers’ working conditions—found that working without contracts and formal recognition has left most survey respondents victim to low pay, wage theft, confusion about employment status, exclusion from the...
Podcast: Workers Speak Out: Unions Are Essential for Democracy
Workers from around the world, including those exiled from Belarus, Eswatini and Myanmar for forming unions, striking and trying to speak freely, describe why democracy is important—and why unions are key to democracy—in a special episode of The Solidarity Center...
Official Summit for Democracy Side Event: Amplifying the Voices of Workers to Safeguard Democracy in Africa
Date: Thursday, March 30, 2023 Time: 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Central Africa Time / 2 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., Eastern Daylight Time Place: In-person (Southern Sun Ridgeway Lusaka, Zambia) and virtual event. Registration required. To join online, click here. To join us in...
Exiled Union Leader: Workers ‘Demanding Democracy’ in Eswatini
In Eswatini, a landlocked country in southern Africa, union workers are routinely harassed, attacked and even killed for going on strike or holding rallies. In 2021, dozens of workers were killed by security forces in what Amnesty International called “a full-frontal...
Brazil: Improving Labor Rights and Conditions for Migrant Workers
The Brazilian Ministry of Labor and Employment (MTE) rescued 39 workers, including children, in February from modern slavery in the state of Santa Catarina. Over half of them were Venezuelan migrants who had moved to the state via the government’s Operation...
Making Trade Work for Workers
Participants in the afternoon plenary at the International Lawyers Assisting Workers Network (ILAW) Global Conference heard updates on how trade agreements are advancing worker rights and learned strategies for incorporating forced labor bans and protecting...
Thai Workers Win Historic $8.3 Million in Back Pay, Financed by Victoria’s Secret
Agreement, the Largest Wage-Theft Settlement at a Garment Factory, Follows Year-Long Advocacy by International Labor Rights Advocates The Solidarity Center and the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) announced today that more than 1,250 Thai workers who sewed bras...
OECD Global Deal Conference: A Better Future for Essential Workers
Date: Thursday, April 7, 2022 Time: 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. EST Place: Virtual. Registration required. Join Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau for a high-level discussion with global leaders on ending gender violence. The panel, “Ending Violence and...
ILAW JOURNAL: ADVANCING THE RIGHTS OF INFORMAL WORKERS
Workers in the informal economy, with assistance from legal advocates, have won protections and respect for their rights at work through a variety of legal strategies, both within and outside of labor law. In the latest issue of the Global Labour Rights Reporter, case...
‘We Are Invisible People’: Kyrgyz Migrant Domestic Worker
A study conducted by Insan-Leilek, a Kyrgyz migrant worker foundation, and the Trade Union of Migrants of the Kyrgyz Republic documents abuses suffered by many who migrate to Russia to earn their livelihoods as nannies, adult caregivers, cooks, cleaners and live-in...
South Africa: Survey Flags Domestic Worker Human Rights Violations, Solutions
“The dignity of people’s very being is at stake,” said IZWI Domestic Worker Alliance’s founder and lead researcher Amy Tekie in opening remarks at a recent webinar focused on a new qualitative survey of human rights violations against live-in domestic workers in South...
Labor Leaders Stand Against Anti-Union Violence as Mexican Workers Vote for an Independent Union
Unions in Mexico and throughout Latin America are speaking out against anti-union violence in the wake of threats made against two women leading efforts to win a historic union election. Voting began yesterday and continues today at a pickup truck plant in Silao,...
Essential Workers Summit: Building a Just Future for All
Workers who risked their health to provide essential services during the pandemic joined with actors, global union leaders and policymakers in a first-of-its-kind worldwide gathering to share their experiences and demand a response that urgently and effectively...
Podcast: Myanmar Workers Stand Up for Democracy
After the military overthrew Myanmar’s democratically elected government in February, the country’s garment workers, most of them young women, were the first to stand up to defend their right to a free and peaceful society. Since then, workers have led peaceful...
Colombia Workers Set for National Strike April 28
Workers and their unions in Colombia will hold a national strike April 28 to protest a tax hike proposed by President Iván Duque that would increase costs for workers already struggling from lost jobs and income from the COVID-19 pandemic. Union leaders say the tax...