In a joint effort to protect market vendors and workers and reduce community spread of COVID-19, Kenya’s labor federation, Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU-K), last week provided three of its affiliates with infection control supplies for distribution...
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WORKERS AND THEIR UNIONS TAKE ACTION ON COVID-19
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...
‘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....
COVID-19: ‘Maquila Workers Shouldn’t Bankroll Employers’
Maquila workers in El Salvador and Honduras are challenging employer attempts to use the coronavirus as a way to cut wages, layoff workers and even stop worker efforts to form unions. In Honduras, after the government on March 15 barred groups larger than 50 from...
With Unions, Informal Economy Workers Gain Rights
Taxi drivers in Ghana, tortilla vendors in Honduras and Asian domestic workers in countries across the Gulf region—all are part of the world’s informal economy, comprising 2 billion workers or 61 percent of the global workforce. Although informal economy workers...
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...
Landmark Agreement for Kenya’s Informal Workers
Three trade unions representing Kenya’s formal-sector workers in food, health, education and metals signed memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with informal worker associations in their respective sectors yesterday. The agreements formalize efforts by affiliates of 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...
Workers Craft Rule on Gender-Based Violence at Work
Workers and their unions are starting discussions this week on a global standard that would address violence and harassment in the world of work. They join representatives of employers and governments at the June 10–20 International Labor Conference (ILC) in Geneva,...
Bangladesh Garment Workers Safer after Fire Trainings
Six years ago, the preventable Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh killed 1,134 garment workers in the world’s worst garment industry disaster. Corporate greed, inadequate labor and building code enforcement, and worker exploitation all contributed to the April 24,...
Brazil Garment Workers’ Union Adopts Women’s Agenda
In a historic achievement, delegates to the 11th Congress of Brazil’s garment worker union federation, CNTRV (National Confederation of Clothing Workers) last week voted for gender parity in leadership and adopted a pro-women’s rights agenda. The union achieved parity...
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...
Liberia Workers Win Large Pay Raise
Benefiting hundreds of miners, forklift drivers and other workers, the United Workers Union of Liberia (UWUL) and ArcelorMittal Liberia (AML)—part of global steel giant ArcelorMittal group—signed their fourth labor contract in Monrovia December 14. The three-year...
Child Labor Problem Urgent: Kyrgyz Workers
A survey conducted this year by the Kyrgyzstan Federation of Trade Unions (KFTU), including unions representing mining and construction workers, found that laws against child labor in the country are inadequate and implementation is uneven, resulting in more than...
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...
Tunisian Workers Celebrate May Day & Their Union
Chanting support for their union and for worker rights, more than 7,000 members of the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) packed the Menzah Sports Palace in Tunis today in a boisterous, enthusiastic May Day celebration. "Our principles are to defend the...