Jul 2, 2025
A federal judge affirms jurisdiction in Solidarity Center’s lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Labor’s cancellation of international labor rights programs, paving the way for court review and potential reinstatement.
Contact: Solidarity Center, [email protected]
This week, a federal judge ruled that our lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Labor’s abrupt cancellation of the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB)-funded worker rights programs can move forward in federal district court. Represented by Public Citizen, we argued that the termination was in violation of the law. In its opinion this week, the court agreed that it has the power to hear our claims.
While we were not granted immediate emergency relief, this is a critical step. The case will now proceed in the court best positioned to provide meaningful remedies, including the potential restoration of our ILAB-funded projects and a reaffirmation that the law must be followed.
This case is about more than funding. It’s about defending programs that support female workers standing up to workplace violence in West Africa, agricultural workers in Central America demanding safer conditions, and manufacturing workers in Mexico using labor rights to hold employers accountable under trade agreements – rights that help ensure U.S. companies sourcing from these factories aren’t profiting from exploitation. These are the people behind the policies, workers whose lives and communities are directly affected when labor rights enforcement disappears.
When all workers—whether in the U.S. or globally—can demand fair treatment and safe workplaces, it helps level the playing field for everyone.
We filed this lawsuit to protect their rights, uphold the rule of law, and push back against attempts to weaken fair trade and global labor standards. We’ll keep fighting in court—and alongside workers.
About the Solidarity Center
The Solidarity Center is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works with unions and worker organizations around the world to promote and protect labor rights. It supports frontline efforts to improve wages, working conditions and workplace safety, combat exploitation and advance the rule of law in the global economy. Learn more: www.solidaritycenter.org/stopping-the-race-to-the-bottom/
About Public Citizen Litigation Group
Public Citizen Litigation Group is the litigating arm of the nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen Foundation. Founded in 1972, the Litigation Group has a long track record of holding federal agencies accountable and enforcing the rule of law in defense of the public good. Learn more: www.citizen.org/litigation.
Apr 15, 2025
Media Contacts
Solidarity Center: [email protected]; Public Citizen: Emily Leach, [email protected]
The Solidarity Center, Global March Against Child Labour, and the American Institutes for Research (AIR), represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group, filed a lawsuit today challenging the U.S. Department of Labor’s unlawful termination of congressionally authorized international labor rights programs.
The lawsuit challenges the Department’s halt on funding for programs administered by the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB). These longstanding, bipartisan programs are the backbone of U.S. efforts to uphold labor standards in global trade, combat child and forced labor and protect American and global workers and businesses from unfair competition.
“Programs like those run by our clients, which promote stronger labor standards and better working conditions worldwide, are both critical from a human rights standpoint and necessary to ensure that American companies and workers, as well as workers around the world, aren’t undercut in the global marketplace,” said Stephanie Garlock, lead counsel at Public Citizen. “Congress required the Department of Labor to fund these crucial programs. The Secretary of Labor has no authority to refuse to do so.”
The plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent further harm and restore funding lawfully appropriated by Congress.
The Solidarity Center, a U.S.-based nonprofit labor organization, had support for all 11 of its ILAB-funded projects terminated – totaling nearly $80 million. These programs, implemented in more than 15 countries, have supported workers organizing for better wages, enforcing safety standards and holding trade partners accountable under agreements like the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA).
The termination of Global March Against Child Labour’s single largest grant will impact around 40,000-50,000 children in Uganda, Peru and Nepal as its implementing partners’ program developing child-labor-free municipalities cooperating with national governments has halted. The result will be tens of thousands of children out of school and a stoppage of preventive community work within supply chains like coffee production — even though these supply chains are crucial for U.S. companies’ imports.
“This case is about more than funding – it’s about protecting workers and enforcing the law,” said Shawna Bader-Blau, Executive Director of the Solidarity Center. “When governments or companies exploit workers to cut costs, it drags down wages and standards everywhere – including in the U.S. These programs are vital to ensuring fair trade and dignity on the job, from Honduras to Ohio.”
“Cutting ILAB programs dismantles one of the main tools we have to fight worker exploitation in the global economy,” Bader-Blau added. “From the clothes we wear to the food we eat, most of what we buy is produced across complex supply chains that stretch around the world. ILAB programs help make sure those workers aren’t being abused – and that businesses that don’t play by the rules don’t get an advantage by exploiting workers overseas. We owe it to workers in America and around the world, to responsible businesses and to our trade partners to do better.”
About the Solidarity Center
The Solidarity Center is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works with unions and worker organizations around the world to promote and protect labor rights. It supports frontline efforts to improve wages, working conditions and workplace safety, combat exploitation and advance the rule of law in the global economy.
Learn more: www.solidaritycenter.org/stopping-the-race-to-the-bottom/.
About Public Citizen Litigation Group
Public Citizen Litigation Group is the litigating arm of the nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen Foundation. Founded in 1972, the Litigation Group has a long track record of holding federal agencies accountable and enforcing the rule of law in defense of the public good.
Learn more: www.citizen.org/litigation.
El Centro de Solidaridad presenta una demanda para impugnar la terminación de los Programas Globales de Derechos Laborales
15 de abril, 2025
Contactos de prensa: Centro de Solidaridad: [email protected] o Emily Leach, Public Citizen: [email protected]
El Centro de Solidaridad, la Marcha Global Contra el Trabajo Infantil y los Institutos de Investigación Estadounidenses (AIR), representados por el Grupo de Litigios de Public Citizen, presentaron hoy una demanda impugnando la terminación ilegal por parte del Departamento de Trabajo de los Estados Unidos de los programas internacionales de derechos laborales autorizados por el Congreso.
La demanda impugna la decisión del Departamento de suspender la financiación de programas administrados por la Oficina de Asuntos Laborales Internacionales (ILAB). Estos programas bipartidistas llevan mucho tiempo activos y son fundamentales en los esfuerzos de EE. UU. para defender los estándares laborales en el comercio mundial, combatir el trabajo infantil y el trabajo forzado y proteger de la competencia desleal a las empresas estadounidenses y a todos los trabajadores.
“Los programas de nuestros clientes, que promueven normas laborales más estrictas y mejores condiciones laborales en todo el mundo, son fundamentales desde el punto de vista de los derechos humanos y también necesarios para garantizar que las empresas y los trabajadores estadounidenses, así como los trabajadores de todo el mundo, no se vean perjudicados en el mercado global,” declaró Stephanie Garlock, abogada principal de Public Citizen. “El Congreso exigió al Departamento de Trabajo que financiara estos programas tan cruciales. El secretario de Trabajo no tiene la potestad para negarse”.
Los demandantes quieren conseguir una medida cautelar y declaratoria para evitar más daños y restablecer la financiación legalmente asignada por el Congreso.
El Centro de Solidaridad, una organización laboral sin ánimo de lucro con sede en EE. UU., vio cancelados los fondos para los 11 proyectos que tenía financiados por el ILAB, por una suma de casi 80 millones de dólares. Estos programas, implementados en más de 15 países, han apoyado a los trabajadores que se organizan para conseguir mejores salarios, hacer cumplir las normas de seguridad y garantizar que los socios comerciales cumplan con las responsabilidades estipuladas en acuerdos como el Tratado entre México, Estados Unidos y Canadá (T-MEC).
La terminación de la mayor subvención individual de la Marcha Global Contra el Trabajo Infantil afectará a entre 40,000 y 50,000 niños en Uganda, Perú y Nepal, ya que se ha detenido el programa de sus socios de implementación que establece municipios libres de trabajo infantil en cooperación con los gobiernos nacionales. El resultado será que decenas de miles de niños no irán a la escuela y se detendrá el trabajo comunitario preventivo en las cadenas de suministro como la producción de café, a pesar de que estas cadenas de suministro son cruciales para las importaciones de las empresas estadounidenses.
“Este caso va más allá de la financiación: se trata de proteger a los trabajadores y hacer cumplir la ley,” dijo Shawna Bader-Blau, directora ejecutiva del Centro de Solidaridad. “Cuando los gobiernos o las empresas explotan a los trabajadores para reducir costes, los salarios y las condiciones laborales se ven afectados en todas partes, incluso en Estados Unidos. Estos programas son vitales para garantizar el comercio justo y la dignidad en el trabajo, desde Honduras hasta Ohio.”
“Dejar sin fondos a los programas de ILAB desmantela una de las principales herramientas que tenemos para luchar contra la explotación de los trabajadores en la economía global,” añadió Bader-Blau. “Desde la ropa que llevamos hasta la comida que comemos, la mayor parte de lo que compramos se produce a través de complejas cadenas de suministro que se extienden por todo el mundo. Los programas de ILAB ayudan a garantizar que esos trabajadores no sean maltratados y que las empresas que no respetan las reglas no saquen ventaja explotando a los trabajadores en otros países. Los trabajadores de Estados Unidos y del resto del mundo, las empresas responsables y nuestros socios comerciales merecen algo mejor.”
Acerca del Centro de Solidaridad
El Centro de Solidaridad es una organización no partidista y sin ánimo de lucro que trabaja con sindicatos y organizaciones de trabajadores de todo el mundo para promover y proteger los derechos laborales. Apoya los esfuerzos en primera línea para mejorar los salarios, las condiciones de trabajo y la seguridad en el lugar de trabajo, combatir la explotación y promover el estado de derecho en la economía global.
Más información: www.solidaritycenter.org/stopping-the-race-to-the-bottom/
Acerca del Grupo de Litigios de Public Citizen
El Grupo de Litigios de Public Citizen es el brazo litigante de la organización sin ánimo de lucro de defensa del consumidor Public Citizen Foundation. Fundado en 1972, el Grupo de Litigios cuenta con amplia experiencia asegurando que las agencias federales cumplan con sus responsabilidades y que se observe el estado de derecho en defensa del bien público.
Más información: www.citizen.org/litigation.
Mar 27, 2025
We are alarmed and deeply dismayed that the U.S. Department of Labor has terminated funding for International Labor Affairs Bureau (ILAB) programs. We have received termination notices for all of our ILAB grants.
This decision threatens to unravel decades of progress in combating forced and child labor, human trafficking and exploitation around the world.
For over 20 years, ILAB-supported programs have helped uphold the values of dignity, freedom and fairness by supporting grassroots efforts to ensure safe workplaces and human rights protections across global supply chains.
Crucially, many of these programs were established to enforce labor provisions in countries where the United States has trade agreements. They help ensure that our trading partners live up to their commitments. Cutting these programs risks turning a blind eye to violations that directly impact the fairness of our trade relationships.
These programs are not ideological – they are practical, effective, and life-changing. They reflect long-standing bipartisan commitments to strengthen labor standards and fight against trafficking, child labor, and exploitative “cheap labor” so that American workers and businesses are not competing with countries that break the rules.
ILAB programs and the work of its staff benefit American workers, too, by raising standards around the world and helping prevent a race to the bottom that drives down wages and working conditions everywhere.
Cutting ILAB funding will silence these efforts and undermine U.S. commitments to American workers and workers worldwide.
For media inquiries, contact [email protected]. For more information: www.solidaritycenter.org.
Mar 5, 2025
The Solidarity Center stands with workers everywhere fighting for fair wages, safe workplaces and fundamental freedoms – because when working people have rights and a voice, democracy thrives.
As the largest U.S.-based international worker rights organization, we fight against forced labor, human trafficking, and unfair business practices that lower wages both in the U.S. and around the world. While we are allied with the AFL-CIO, we operate independently and focus solely on global efforts to uphold a simple principle: hardworking people – no matter where they live – deserve respect, fair wages and the ability to come together to negotiate better pay, benefits, and working conditions with their employers.
This isn’t charity – it’s a fight for fairness, and the stakes are real:
- Trade unionists face violence and crackdowns – even death.
- Working people, unions and veterans in war zones lose access to legal aid.
- Hard-won labor protections vanish, leaving millions without safeguards to defend their rights.
- With deep local partnerships, we’re often the only international organization standing with workers in the toughest conditions. Funding does not drive this, our mission does. And we won’t back down.
Workers’ fight is our fight. When workers win, democracy wins.
For media inquiries, contact [email protected]. For more information: www.solidaritycenter.org.
