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 Solidarity Center partners SITRAJERZEESH and the Honduran General Confederation of Workers signed a landmark agreement with Russell Athletic/Fruit of the Loom, Inc., the largest private employer in Honduras. The signing ended a year-long campaign protesting the controversial closure of the company’s Jerzees de Honduras apparel factory. |
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 Despite indications that the economy is on the rebound, the International Labor Organization in its latest study on global wages says that income for workers worldwide is likely to decrease further in 2009. In an update to its Global Wage Report, the ILO said the increase in average wages in a sampling of 53 developed and developing countries fell from 4.3 percent in 2007 to 1.4 percent in 2008 and is likely to fall even further. |
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 Since July 12, thousands of members of the United Steelworkers (USW) who work in mines and smelters in Ontario, Canada for the Brazilian multinational company Vale have been on strike. Meanwhile, Vale workers throughout Brazil are struggling to hold on to jobs, achieve minimum standards for safe working conditions, and guarantee basic labor rights.
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 The Solidarity Center supports the efforts of domestic workers to win their rights on the job and develop long-term policies to promote decent work. Solidarity Center programs have helped partner organizations develop organizing strategies, advocate for policy change, and support international efforts to promote a standard-setting international convention on domestic work.
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 The Solidarity Center’s Gladys Cisneros and Stephen Wishart were caught in Honduras when ousted President Manuel Zelaya returned, raising and dashing the hopes of the Honduran people for a restoration to democracy and constitutional order. "In the midst of this infuriating and heartbreaking situation, the courage and spirit of the Honduran people are remarkable and inspiring," they said. |
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 A champion of press freedom and women’s rights in Afghanistan, Farida Nekzad works under tremendous pressure at a time when women journalists are being threatened and killed for their reporting. Despite the danger, Nekzad is committed to staying in her country and continuing her work. Read her interview with the Solidarity Center's Tim Ryan. |
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.jpg) Mansour Osanloo, leader of the Vahed bus drivers union in Tehran, has been been denied permission to leave prison for urgent medical treatment despite a referral from the prison doctor. Take action! Learn more about the Solidarity Center's support of the global labor movement's efforts to expose worker rights violations in Iran. |
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 The International Federation of Journalists reports that the six Gambian journalists who were serving a two-year prison term for “sedition and defamation” were released on September 3. The journalists were arrested in June following their public criticism of President Yahya Jammeh’s comments on Deyda Hydara, a prominent Gambian journalist murdered in 2004. A government official explained the presidential pardon as a “humanitarian gesture in the spirit of Ramadan.” |
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 The Solidarity Center and other human and worker rights organizations are disturbed by the investigation and trial of prominent Kazakhstani human rights activist Yevgeniy Zhovtis, convicted of vehicular manslaughter on September 3, 2009. Zhovtis was sentenced to four years in prison effective immediately. His attorneys are appealing the verdict. |
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 After four months of struggle and weeks of intense negotiations, workers and management at Toshiba Consumer Products Indonesia reached a settlement: 682 workers will be reinstated, but 15 local union leaders will not get their jobs back. "Most important is that the union status in this company is restored," said a union leader. " If we had prolonged this struggle, the company could have replaced the dismissed workers with contract workers." |
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 The Solidarity Center joins its union and NGO partners around the world in recognizing the contribution of foreign domestic workers and supporting global activities aimed at promoting decent work for domestic workers. The Solidarity Center is part of a rapidly growing global movement to recognize the dignity of domestic workers, promote domestic workers’ efforts to defend their rights, and call on trade union partners to support a new ILO convention for domestic workers. |
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