Nomita Nath gets many calls each day at the union office in Chittagong, Bangladesh, from garment workers seeking immediate assistance. Some are locked out of factory gates by supervisors who see them as union supporters and effectively fire them. Others are faced with...
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May Day: Workers Demand Their Rights around the World
Union members in Bangladesh, Brazil, Iraq and Morocco were among Solidarity Center allies around the world who rallied, marched in parades and protested in the streets yesterday, marking May Day and the ongoing struggle to ensure workers have a place at the table in...
May Day: Solidarity Center Fights for Worker Rights Worldwide
More than 100 years ago, workers striking for an eight-hour day and living wages declared May 1 an annual date for international labor rights to honor workers and raise awareness of their struggles. Around the world, many workers are still fighting for those basic...
Report: Freedom of Association Restrictions a Top Violation in 2013
Government restrictions and repression of citizens’ universal right to freedoms of assembly and association topped the list of violations in the State Department’s 2014 annual “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.” The report, released yesterday, also singled...
Empowering Workers in Bangladesh Export Processing Zones
Garment workers and workers in other industries in Bangladesh’s export-processing zones are subject to a different, much weaker set of labor laws than workers in the rest of the country, and the government must take steps to reform laws so they meet international...
Send Solidarity Greetings to Bangladeshi Garment Workers!
A year ago, 112 garment workers were killed in a fire at the Tazreen Fashions Ltd. factory—and a thousand others were injured in the scramble to escape a building with no fire escapes and firmly barred windows. On April 24, 2012, more than 1,200 garment workers were...
Tazreen Survivor, Tahera: I Am Too Afraid to Sleep
Tahera, 23, has been so ill from the injuries she sustained in the November 24, 2012, Tazreen Fashions factory fire, her husband Roshidul has had to quit his job to take care of her. Now, they have no income to support their family of four. The blaze, which spread...
Tazreen Factory Fire: A Year Later, Survivors Feel Forgotten
A year after the deadly factory fire that killed 112 garment workers at Tazreen Fashions Ltd. in Bangladesh, survivors and the families of those killed and injured say they have been forgotten by the factory owner, international buyers and the government. In...
Georgia Unionist: Tough Climb for Women to Become Leaders
Eteri Matureli knows how difficult it is for women to rise through the ranks of union leadership. Elected vice president of the Georgia Trade Union Confederation (GTUC) in 2009 and now director of the GTUC Women’s Committee, Matureli said she “had to build a long...
Experts: Bangladesh Accord Is a Game Changer
Tim Ryan, Solidarity Center Asia Region Director, sends us this report from the AFL-CIO quadrennial convention in Los Angeles. In a dramatic demonstration of how deadly the global supply chain really is, Scott Nova, director of the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC),...
U.S. Rep. Levin Meets with Bangladesh Factory Survivors
When the Rana Plaza building collapsed in April, killing more than 1,200 Bangladesh garment workers, the disaster also injured thousands more workers, in many instances devastating their ability to support their families and plunging them into dire poverty. Nasima was...
Panel to Congress: Hold Companies Responsible for Forced Labor
At least 21 million people globally toil in forced labor, a problem that stems from a “global governance crisis” in which corporations’ supply chains have gotten so complex and diffuse that current oversight mechanisms are no longer effective, according to a panel of...
Bangladesh Reinstates Garment Worker Rights Group
The Bangladesh government has re-registered the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS), a move that means the organization can fully function again and pursue its mission of educating workers about their rights. The Bangladesh government revoked the...
Bangladesh Union Leader: Global Support Key for Working Women
Women around the world work make up the vast majority of workers in dangerous, difficult and low-paid jobs—and in Bangladesh, garment workers, the majority of whom are women, often risk their lives for a chance to support themselves and their families. More than...
Women in Manufacturing Share Empowerment Strategies
With images of the April 24 Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh as a backdrop, five union and community activists discussed the struggles women face in the light manufacturing industry—and how they are being empowered—in today’s first plenary at the Solidarity...
Plenary Women Worker Rights and Gender Equality in Light Manufacturing: What Way Forward?
Plenary Women Worker Rights and Gender Equality in Light Manufacturing: What Way Forward? Panelists • Morium Sheuli, General Secretary, Bangladesh Independent Garment Workers Union Federation (BIGUF) • Evangelina Argûeta Chinchilla, Coordinator, General Workers...
U.S. Trade Decision Key Step for Bangladesh Worker Rights
Workers in Bangladesh—especially millions of poorly paid garment workers who often risk their lives in dangerous factories—won a new tool to advance their rights when the United States suspended preferential trade benefits with the country. Yesterday’s announcement...
U.S. Rep. Miller Meets with Bangladesh Garment Union Leaders
The freedom to form factory-level unions and negotiate job safety, living wages and fundamental social protections is key to any reform of Bangladesh’s labor laws, leaders and members of Bangladesh unions and worker organizations told U.S. Rep. George Miller...
Cambodia: Owner Admits Negligence in Factory Collapse
At least 23 garment workers were injured today when a structure the workers used for rest breaks collapsed in Cambodia. The collapse comes just days after two workers were killed when a ceiling caved in at a Cambodian shoe factory. Over the weekend, the owner of the...
Bangladesh Government Moves to Ease Unionization
The Bangladesh cabinet approved a change to the nation’s labor laws that it says would enable workers to more freely form unions. The proposal, which must be approved by Parliament, would allow workers to join unions without showing the list of union supporters to...