Jul 26, 2024
Trade agreements, including the sub-Saharan region’s African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), must create economic growth that benefits working people and their communities, said U.S. and African labor representatives at a labor stakeholder event and civil society and labor forum this week in Washington, D.C.
Labor and other civil society organizations met ahead of Thursday’s U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) 21st AGOA Forum, which solicits feedback from stakeholders in anticipation of the agreement’s renewal next year. Preparatory events included a labor stakeholders’ event hosted by the AFL-CIO and facilitated by the Solidarity Center, and a Civil Society and Labor Forum hosted by the Wilson Center.
AGOA LABOR STAKEHOLDERS’ EVENT
Welcoming presenters and participants to the U.S. “House of Labor,” which represents 14.5 million union members through AFL-CIO affiliation, AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer and Solidarity Center Board Member Fred Redmond said labor is taking a united stand on worker-centered trade agreements and economic growth.
The AFL-CIO supports a renewed AGOA program that strengthens labor standards and includes effective monitoring and enforcement mechanisms.
“Your work here doesn’t just lift up workers in Africa: It lifts up workers all around the world,” said Redmond, adding that AGOA renewal is an opportunity for labor to promote “a new vision for an economic and trade agenda that spurs inclusive growth to benefit African workers for generations to come.
“The engine of growth should be decent work,” said Redmond.
AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer and Solidarity Center Board Member Fred Redmond welcomes African labor leaders and U.S. government representatives to discuss renewal of the AGOA trade agreement.
The International Labor Organization defines decent work as employment that provides living wages in workplaces that are safe and healthy, with fairness on the job and social protections for workers when they are sick, injured or retire.
“Trade is about people,” Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) General Secretary Emmanuel Ugboaja told U.S. government agency representatives at AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, DC.
NLC General Secretary Emmanuel Ugboaja presents with COSATU President Zingiswa Losi.
Labor’s event provided a high-level forum for discussion on AGOA for African and American union leaders and their allies—including from Nigeria, South Africa and the International Trade Union Confederation-Africa (ITUC-Africa)—with senior representatives of multiple U.S. government agencies that included the U.S. Agency for International Aid (USAID), the U.S. Department of State (USDOS) and USTR.
“We need to partner with people, governments, organizations, the labor movement, civil society around the world to manifest the next economic world order,” said USTR Ambassador Katherine Tai.
USTR Ambassador Katherine Tai makes opening remarks, following USDOS Special Representative for International Affairs Kelly Rodriguez (right).
During a panel discussion on the need for employment-centric trade agreements, labor representatives emphasized that the goal of economic growth and investment policies be good jobs.
“We want the engine of growth to be good, safe jobs—with protections where workers can exercise their fundamental rights,” said ITUC-Africa President Martha Tinny Molema.
ITUC-Africa President Martha Tinny Molema makes opening remarks.
“The new AGOA should support African countries to help them develop robust labor laws and enforcement mechanisms,” said ITUC-Africa Chief Economist Dr. Hod Anyigba, who held up the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMSA) as a starting point for a better trade agreement—including eligibility criteria.
ITUC-Africa Chief Economist Dr. Hod Anyigba with panel moderator Center for American Progress (CAP) President and former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Patrick Gaspard.
Representing U.S. union support, panel presenter Keturah Johnson, Association of Flight Attendants-CWA International vice president, emphasized the need for global solidarity in demanding employer and government accountability.
“We are the workers. So we should be dictating what [trade agreement] criteria are,” said Johnson.
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA International Vice President Keturah Johnson. Credit: Solidarity Center / Terrance Heath
AGOA CIVIL SOCIETY AND ORGANIZED LABOR FORUM
A panel representing African labor presents at an AGOA Civil Society and Labor Forum on July 24, 2024.
“We are a rich continent with poor people,” said COSATU President Zingiswa Losi at the July 24, 2024, Civil Society and Labor Forum. “Worker rights and collective bargaining must be [at] the center of all trade agreements.”
COSATU President Zingiswa Losi presents at the 2024 AGOA Civil Society and Organized Labor Forum in Washington, DC.
THE UNION SOLUTION
Labor recommendations for improving the AGOA were read aloud at the official AGOA Forum by ITUC-Africa President Martha Tinny Molema on July 25. Unions are demanding that the renewed AGOA include enhancements to advance workers’ rights as defined by ILO conventions, include a mechanism for input from workers and their unions across all aspects of the agreement and include a rapid response mechanism for independent verification of labor violations.
AGOA provides eligible sub-Saharan African countries with duty-free access to U.S. markets for more than 1,800 products, with eligibility criteria that include making continual progress toward establishing the rule of law and enacting policies to reduce poverty, combat corruption, and protect human rights.
Photo credit: Solidarity Center / Terrance Heath
Jul 22, 2024
General Agricultural Workers’ Union of Ghana (GAWU) Deputy General Secretary Andrews Addoquaye Tagoe was recognized last month by the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) for his role in advancing child and worker rights and for reducing child labor in Ghana’s agricultural industry.
“Where the union is present, child labor is absent,” Tagoe said about GAWU’s campaign to end child labor on Ghana’s cocoa farms.
Alarmed by increasing child labor in Ghana and Ivory Coast cocoa production, GAWU is addressing child labor in cocoa farming communities by applying a child-labor-reduction model honed in fishing communities on Lake Volta. The program raises awareness and incomes of parents so that kids can stay in school.
Although the cocoa industry’s biggest companies pledged to eradicate the “worst forms” of child labor in their supply chains nearly 20 years ago, more than 2 million children are estimated to be engaged in cocoa production in West Africa—primarily in Ghana and Ivory Coast. The two countries together supply roughly 60 percent of the world’s cocoa beans. As cocoa production in both countries has increased, so has child labor.
Despite the chocolate industry’s substantial annual profits of around $103 billion, up to 90 percent of Ghanaian cocoa farmers do not earn a living income. Building worker voice at local and national levels for farmers to benefit from higher cocoa prices and the profitable global chocolate industry will help end child labor, says GAWU.
Children in Ghana are subjected to the worst forms of child labor, including in fishing and cocoa production, reported USDOL in 2022. More than half of children living in agricultural households in Ghana are reportedly engaged in child labor, most in at least one form of hazardous child labor.
By organizing and formalizing the agricultural economy in rural areas and working with communities to eliminate child labor, Tagoe has developed and implemented child labor free zones resulting in ‘withdrawal of thousands of children in rural communities from the worst forms of child labor,’ said Thea Lee, USDOL Deputy Secretary for International Affairs at the award ceremony.
“An Africa without child labor is possible,” Tagoe said in his acceptance speech.
Tagoe was co-recipient of the 2024 USDOL’s Iqbal Masih Award for the Elimination of Child Labor with Egyptian civil society organization Wadi El Nil. The award honors its namesake, a Pakistani child sold into slavery at age four to work as a carpet weaver and who, after escaping at age 10, became an outspoken public advocate against child exploitation and died tragically at the age of 12.
Watch a Solidarity Center video about GAWU’s fight against child labor in cocoa production.
Jun 26, 2024
Five years after its adoption by the International Labor Organization (ILO)—a specialized agency of the United Nations—the first global binding treaty to address gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) in the world of work is yielding tangible results, addressing the fear of harassment and violence many workers face every day at work because of their gender.
The Violence and Harassment Convention, C190, calls on governments, employers and unions to work together to confront the root causes of GBVH, including multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, gender stereotypes and unequal gender-based power relationships.
Women trade unionists and feminist activists campaigned for more than a decade to make the adoption of C190 possible, led by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the Solidarity Center and other labor allies. Since C190’s adoption by governments, employers and worker representatives one year ago, unions have conducted extensive education and awareness training among members, a process that has mobilized members to confront GBVH at their workplaces through collective bargaining.
A June 20 virtual celebration, co-sponsored by the Solidarity Center, brought together 361 worker and women’s rights activists from around the world to report progress, discuss their plans to ensure C190 ratification and implementation, and envision the changes necessary to end GBVH in the world of work. The convention has been ratified by 44 countries.
THE POWER OF C190
C190 has been an “extremely valuable tool that legitimized the global problem of GBVH,” said Anannya Bhattacharjee, Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA) international coordinator, including the Dindigul Agreement, said at the event. Signed with three global brands, the agreement is the first of its kind to address GBVH in the workplace in Asia and came about following the widely publicized rape and murder of a 20-year old woman garment worker by her supervisor following months of harassment.
One of the most important successes of a decade-long fight for adoption, ratification and implementation of C190 is its contribution to women’s leadership, said Fulya Pinar Ozcan, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Women’s Committee member and Women’s Committee at Öz İplik-İş-Turkiye president. ITUC represents 200 million workers in 168 countries.
“I want you to imagine waking up every morning in fear of going to work, knowing that you might face harassment or violence just because of your gender,” she said. “And now imagine a world where this fear doesn’t exist, where every woman feels safe, respected and valued.”
In this context, C190 is both a path to freedom from fear and a transformative opportunity to empower women to rise as leaders during the development of the C190 campaign, said Ozcan.
“C190 is more than a legal instrument. It is a beacon of hope,” she said.
Because its constitution grants constitutional status to all UN conventions, Mexico’s government could begin implementing C190 immediately, said Marta Ferreyra, Institute for Women in Mexico (INMUJERES) National Policy of Equality and Rights of Women director general.
And Christy Hoffman, UNI global union general secretary, said that unions are now integrating C190 text in agreements, among them UNI’s global agreement with French telephone company Orange, and many more national and local collective bargaining agreements point toward C190 descriptions of violence and harassment and remedies.
MORE WORK TO BE DONE
Dr. Geeta Rao Gupta, U.S. ambassador-at-large for the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, told the audience that, “Violence and sexual harassment anywhere is a gross human rights violation and it must stop.”
Reporting back from this month’s ILO International Labor Conference event promoting decent work for care workers, International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF) General Secretary Adriana Paz Ramirez outlined increased GBVH risks for domestic workers who are providing child and elder care in private homes. Risks are especially high for migrant women who are legally tied to a single employer, such as in Gulf countries under the kafala system.
Tomoya Obokata, UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery said addressing intersectionality in the uneven effects of GBVH in the world of work is key. He said, as addressed in his 2022 report on contemporary forms of slavery, it is clear that Indigenous, minority and migrant workers are “particularly at risk of abuse.”
Lopa Banerjee, UN Women Civil Society division director, said that governments’ implementation of all normative frameworks that support gender equality, including C190, are key, as is adequate resourcing of women’s feminist and labor justice movements and institutions.
“This is a moment to really strengthen the feminist movement–including the gender justice and labor justice movements,” she said.
A power shift sufficient to end GBVH in the world of work is predicated on recognition that the economy is political, said Ghada Abdel Tawab, Ford Foundation Future of Work(ers) International senior program officer. “Organizing and cross-movement building across labor and gender have been key in shifting power back to the worker,” she said, adding that “the state, the market and labor are intertwined.”
Fatime Christiane Ndiaye, ILO senior gender specialist and Decent Work Team-Dakar member; and Laura Nyirinkindi, Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls member and National Federation of Women Lawyers Africa regional vice president.
Event co-sponsors included AFWA, Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity (BCWS), Feminist Alliance for Rights (FAR), Global Labor Justice (GLJ), Human Rights Watch, IDWF, ITUC, Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC), Solidarity Center and UNI Global Union.
The celebration was moderated by human rights journalist for The Guardian Annie Kelly and Feminist Alliance for Rights (FAR) Transnational Lead Krishanti Dharmaraj, both of whom pointed to UN Women’s Beijing +30 (2025) gathering as a key opportunity for moving forward the expansion of women’s rights, including through the eradication of GBVH in the world of work.
Learn more about Solidarity Center and GBVH in the world of work here.
Jun 7, 2024
Workers employed by the Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila are demanding a clear explanation for the surprise termination at the end of this month of more than 1,000 employees. Almost half of those losing their livelihoods are full-time, permanent employees, said the Center of the United and Progressive Workers (SENTRO) during a June 3 press conference and solidarity rally with global union International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF).
Representing two Sofitel union chapters, SENTRO with IUF is calling for transparency from Philippine Plaza Holdings, Inc., which owns the hotel, regarding the hotel’s abrupt June 30 closure announcement, allegedly for structural renovations, an explanation for surprise termination and management’s plans for the hotel.
Sofitel this year is reporting its best business performance in almost half a century.
“We gave our whole life to Sofitel, then they will suddenly terminate us. A lot of us are deep in problems right now,” said Philippine Plaza Supervisory Chapter President Arnold Bautista on behalf of the Sofitel workers whom he represents during the press conference.
Bautista recounted how management consistently informed staff of upcoming renovations only to abruptly announce a complete closure on May 7 and distribute surprise termination notices to employees the following day.
“If hotel operations can proceed while the renovations are ongoing, then a closure is not necessary. If the safety concerns are serious enough to warrant a closure, then why is Sofitel still accepting guests and deploying workers in the hotel? Has it been knowingly putting both guests and workers at risk?” asked IUF and SENTRO in an online statement.
Sofitel’s workers are urging transparency regarding the owners’ plans. “We’re willing to wait if Sofitel will be renovated and reopened. What the union and the workers want is that we won’t be terminated. If they have other plans, [they should] include the employees who have contributed to their business,” said Philippine Plaza Chapter President Nestor Cabada during the press conference on behalf of the Sofitel workers whom he represents.
“As long as one of us is still standing, we will fight,” he added.
The Philippines is ranked as one of the 10 worst countries for working people. Unions there face attempts to bust their organization, arrests and violence. Four union activists were killed for their work in 2023 and, last year, seven delegates representing the Philippines labor movement were awarded AFL-CIO George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., in recognition of the Philippines labor movement’s resilience, persistence and courage.
Watch video here.
Jun 4, 2024
Through expanded regional and global partnerships, the Organization of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA) is growing its campaign for increased budgetary allocation to health care in the region, said OTUWA Executive Secretary John Odah from Abuja, in a solidarity message to the opening session of the 24th Plenary of the West African Health Sector Unions Network (WAHSUN).
Now in its fourth year, OTUWA’s “Health Care Is a Human Right” advocacy campaign is allying with global union federation Public Services International (PSI), civil society organizations across the region and WAHSUN to better advocate for equal and fair health care access for all who live within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Nearly 83 percent of Africa’s workers are trapped in poorly paid and uncertain informal-sector jobs and lack access to state-provided health care or health insurance—an unfair financial burden on the continent’s most vulnerable individuals. And yet West Africa’s governments are not implementing the 15 percent minimum annual budgetary health allocation to which African heads of state agreed in the landmark 2001 Abuja Declaration. No country in the region achieves this percentage currently.
OTUWA’s campaign, launched in 2020 by national labor federations from five countries, has expanded its reach to health sector unions and national labor centers in eight countries—including the Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo—as well as to civil society organizations such as the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA). The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights with the World Health Organization defines the right to health as “a fundamental part of our human rights and of our understanding of a life in dignity.” The Solidarity Center supports OTUWA in this campaign and on other worker rights initiatives.
“Together we must get public health services out of their chronic state of neglect and underfunding,” Odah told the Solidarity Center, adding that OTUWA’s campaign is adding good governance to its health care demands.
Thus far, the campaign has gathered and released important regional health care worker data and initiated advocacy meetings with national, regional and continent-wide African Union legislators and policymakers, including the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The campaign most recently saw success in Nigeria earlier this year, where the federal government announced a disbursement of almost $70 million to bolster the country’s health infrastructure.
“Only a transparent, democratic system can secure, fairly allocate and responsibly spend increased health care funds,” said Odah.
OTUWA represents national trade union centers in the 15 West African countries comprising ECOWAS. PSI encompasses more than 700 trade unions that represent 30 million workers in 154 countries.
Watch a video about the campaign.
