Solidarity Center - Category: Photo Story

Solidarity Center Turns 20!

Nov 16, 2017

Evangelina Argüeta Chinchilla, Angel Miguel Conde Tapia, Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau, Rep. Karen Bass and Leonila Murillo celebrating the organization’s 20th Anniversary.

AFL-CIO, Liz Shuler, Sander Levin, Solidarity Center, human rights

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and Rep. Sander Levin.

Rep. Karen Bass, Solidarity Center, human rights

Rep. Karen Bass (right) celebrates Solidarity Center honorees Eva Argueta, Miguel Conde, and Leonila Murillo.

Shawna Bader-Blau, Solidarity Center, human rights

SC 20th Event.SBB.Leonila Murillo.11.15.17.Imagine Photography

UAW’s Darius Sivin and David Yang, former deputy assistant Administrator in USAID Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance

Kevin Collins from Amalgamated Bank, a top Solidarity Center sponsor

UFCW, Solidarity Center, Shawna Bader-Blau

Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau and Randy Parraz of the UFCW, a top Solidarity Center sponsor

Cathy Feingold, AFL-CIO, Lisa McGowan, Solidarity Center, gender equality

AFL-CIO International Director Cathy Feingold and Lisa McGowan, Solidarity Center

Representatives of AFT, a Solidarity Center event sponsor.

Ed Smith of Ullico, a generous Solidarity Center sponsor; Bernie Evers, president of the Ironworkers, a top Solidarity Center sponsor; Bama Athreya from USAID and David Yang, former deputy assistant Administrator in USAID Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance

Representatives from Ullico, a generous Solidarity Center sponsor.

Solidarity Center Legal Director .Jeff Vogt, U.S. Senate staff Thomas Richards, Mark Mittelhauser, associate deputy undersecretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Labor Department Bureau of International Labor Affairs and Carol Pier, former deputy undersecretary for international affairs at U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs

AFGE Vice President Dan Doyle, Liz Cattaneo from Jobs with Justice and Gregg James, AFGE vice president

Representatives from CWA, one of many Solidarity Center sponsors

Joe Gleason and Steve Moody

Solidarity Center

Sarah Fox, former representative of the U.S. State Department and Barbara Shailor, former representative of the U.S. Labor Department

Chris Neff, executive assistant to AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and Laine Alston Romero of the Ford Foundation

Sam Worthington from InterAction and Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau

Solidarity Center

Harry Kamberis, Barbara Haig and Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau

Former Solidarity Center Acting Director Nancy Mills

Solidarity Center

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Tefere Gebre

Former AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt-Baker and Solidarity Center Organizational and Leadership Development Director Al Davidoff

Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau and Worker Rights Consortium Director Scott Nova

Solidarity Center

Mark Hankin, formerly of the Solidarity Center, and NED President Carl Gershman

Harry Kamberis, Cathy Feingold, AFL-CIO, Sander Levin, Shawna Bader-Blau

Founding Solidarity Center Executive Director Harry Kamberis, AFL-CIO International Director Cathy Feingold, Rep. Sander Levin and Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau

Solidarity Center staff Paata Beltadze (Georgia), Olena Mykhalchenko, Labor Initiatives (Ukraine), Tatyana Solodovnyk (Ukraine) and Guranda Ghoghoberidze (Georgia).

Solidarity Center, Shawna Bader-Blau

Solidarity Center, Lisa McGowan

Solidarity Center

AFT, Solidarity Center

Solidarity Center

Sarah MacKenzie, director of Solidarity Center Trade Union Strengthening, Ann Hanin, and Elly Kugler of NDWA

Solidarity Center

Farm Workers’ Global Struggle for Rights on the Job

Oct 10, 2017

Agriculture employs nearly half of the world’s workforce. Low-paying and seasonal, it also is one of the three most hazardous sectors for workers (along with construction and mining), according to the International Labor Organization.

Agriculture workers are often denied decent wages. This is especially true for women, who, despite their predominance in the sector (50 percent to 70 percent of informal agriculture workers are women), are paid up to 50 percent less than their male co-workers for doing the same job. The precariousness of this work is compounded by informal employment arrangements or agreements with labor brokers, violence and harassment on the job and the unpredictability of the seasons when cash crops are planted and harvested.

Despite the hardships, agricultural workers—cacao harvesters in the Dominican Republic, vegetable farmers in South Africa and Moroccan vineyard and olive grove laborers in Meknes—are joining with unions and worker associations to improve their workplaces and win rights on the job.

South Africa, farm worker, Solidarity Center, unions

A South Africa farm worker, a member of the Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU), clears brush on a farm near Krugersdorp. Credit: Solidarity Center/Jemal Countess

Peru, palm oil workers, families, plantation

Vilda López, with her daughter, Celestina, is among Peruvian plantation workers represented by two unions, both Solidarity Center allies. Credit: Solidarity Center/Oscar Durand

Dominican Republic, plantation workers, cocoa, farm workers, Solidarity Center

Tomas Reyes cuts cacao fruit in the Los Chepitos organic tree farm of Villa Altagracia. Cacao workers are members of Solidarity Center union ally Movimiento Campesino Dominicano (MCD). Solidarity Center /Ricardo Rojas.

Morocco, agricultural workers, Meknes, Solidarity Center

Agriculture workers in Meknes, Morocco, head to work. Credit: Solidarity Center/Hind Cherrouk

Mexico, child labor, harvesting scallions in Mexicali, Solidarity Center

Some 168 million children are forced to work around the world, such a this girl picking scallions in Mexico. When adults are not paid a living wage, children often work to help support the family. Credit: US State Department

Liberia, student, 17 year old girl, Firestone Junior High, Solidarity Center

Sorbor S. Tarnue, 17, attends school at the Firestone rubber plantation because her parents’ union, FAWUL, a Solidarity Center ally, negotiated a reduction in the high daily production quota of latex. Parents had been forced to bring their children to work to meet the high quotas.

Peru, palm oil workers, families, plantation, unions, Solidarity Center

Palm oil workers at Grupo Romero’s Grupo Palmas company live and work on the plantation with their families. The Solidarity Center works with their union to provide training and education for worker support on the job. Credit: Solidarity Center/Oscar Durand

Tashkent, Uzbekistan, cotton picking, forced labor, unions, Solidarity Center

Each year in Uzbekistan, teachers and health care workers are among those forced to work for weeks picking cotton during the annual harvest. Credit: AHRU Cotton Campaign

Morocco, women, agriculture workers, union, bargaining agreement, Solidarity Center

Some 1,000 agricultural workers on five large farms in Morocco’s fertile Meknes region recently won their first collective bargaining agreement. Workers now receive bonuses if their work exceeds the norm and are provided with safety equipment and social benefits. Solidarity Center ally Confédération Démocratique du Travail signed the pact with the agro-industry employer Les Domaines Brahim Zniber in January. Credit: Solidarity Center/Hind Cherrouk

Dominican Republic, cocoa plantation worker, unions, Solidarity Center

Rafael Doe Via grafts cacao trees in the Los Chepitos organic tree farm of Villa Altagracia, Dominican Republic. Credit: Solidarity Center/Ricardo Rojas

Peru, palm oil workers, plantation, woman worker, Solidarity Center

Workers of Palma del Espino arrive at Fray Martin camp, in San Martin, Peru, at the end of a work day. Credit: Solidarity Center/Oscar Durante

South Africa, cabbage farmers, unions, Solidarity Center

Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU) members plant cabbage seedlings on a farm in Rustenburg, South Africa. Credit: Solidarity Center/Jemal Countess

Peru, farm workers, unions, Solidarity Center

Using new techniques she learned from Solidarity Center training, including public speaking and one-on-one-contact to encourage self-confidence and participation, Violeta, a farm worker in Peru, leads workshops to empower women farm workers. Credit: Solidarity Center/Samantha Tate

South Africa cabbage planters. Credit: Solidarity Center/Jemal Countess

Breaking Ground: Mexico’s Miners Push For Worker Rights

Oct 10, 2017

Mine workers in Mexico labor in difficult and sometimes deadly working conditions. But through their union, the National Union of Mine, Metal, Steel and Similar Workers of the Mexican Republic (SNTMMSSRM, known as “Los Mineros”), they are winning collective bargaining pacts that include significant economic benefits, essential safety and health protections, and other fundamental rights on the job.

The union is breaking ground by raising the visibility of the work and activism of women members through the Mineras de Acero (Women Miners of Steel) leadership and gender equality training, a program jointly developed by the Solidarity Center, United Steelworkers (USW), Comité Fronterizo de Obrer@s (Border Committee of Workers, CFO) and Los Mineros.

During the most recent collective bargaining training, union members looked at family-friendly contract language and strategies for promoting gender equality and ensuring that women’s key issues get on the list of bargaining priorities—and stay there. Female miners and their sisters in allied industries are building a network throughout the national union as a result of this work.

In this photo essay, Los Mineros members working in the Fénix and Monje phosphate mines in La Paz, a large commercial center in the Mexican coastal state of Baja California Sur, demonstrate the daily courage and quiet dignity of miners at work.

Photos by Roberto Armocida for the Solidarity Center, unless otherwise specified.

Mexico, gender equality, Solidarity Center, unions, miners

Miner Ileana Vasquez, repairing machinery nearly 1,000 feet from the surface, has worked three years as an instrumentalist and electromechanic. Vasquez and other women miners are challenging Mexico’s cultural and social taboos regarding women working in mines.

Mexico, miners, Solidarity Center, Los Mineros

Juan Pablo Bautista Gómez, with the protective equipment he wears in the mine, gets set to leave for work from his home in La Paz, where he lives with his daughter and grandchildren. Gómez has worked in the mines since 1978 and is in charge of maintaining equipment and external logistics.

In the Fenix Mine shaft, César Estrada Cueva from Guadalajara, Jalisco, is among 30 miners who work on each of three excavation shifts that keep production going 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Mine worker Ruth Rivera, 45, a single mother of three, gets ready for work. Rivera, a union steward, has worked as a miner for six years and was a founding member of Mineras de Acero.

Ruth Rivera and her co-workers travel through the mines in a cart that transports all personnel.

Ruth Rivera (center) and her co-workers inside the Fenix mine, where the tunnel height varies between 59 inches and 62 inches.

Miner Ruth Rivera also is responsible for the delivery and recovery of personal protective equipment. The equipment allows miners to survive without air for a maximum of 60 minutes.

Workers operate a conveyor belt to extract rock and deposit it outside the mine. Miners load the rock onto trucks and drivers carry it to the processing plant.

A crew of miners, a team leader and a supervisor organize their work at the excavation system in the Fenix mine shaft, where workers excavate phosphate rock, the basic ingredient for fertilizer.

Luis Alberto Bernal Díaz at the Fenix mine, working nearly 1,000 feet below the Earth’s surface.

Miners in the Monje mine shaft finish the morning shift and return safety equipment such as personal protective devices and rechargeable lamps.

Lizbeth Garcia, a geological engineer, goes over an excavation map during a training for women mine worker members of Los Mineros. Credit: Julia Quioñez, CFO

Women miners take a break during from mining, welding and related work to participate in a workshop on collective bargaining focused on strategies that include gender equality and family friendly language in contracts. Los Mineros members include Maria de los Angeles Nuñez de la Rosa (center), Alma Yadira Martinez Ramirez (top right) and Eliza Martinez Carrillo (top left). Credit: Los Mineros

Mexico, miners, gender equality, unions, Solidarity Center

In Mexico, Ruth Adriana Lopez Patiño, from Los Mineros, Julia Quiñonez, CFO, and Mariela Sanchez Casas, Los Mineros, all founded the “Mineras de Acero” (Women Miners of Steel) training program. In February, they participated in a tour of a gold mine during a training on gender equality and women’s leadership. Credit: Los Mineros

Reaching Kenya Communities on Realities of Migrating for Jobs

Sep 27, 2017

In Kenya, where 2.5 million people toil in irregular, precarious jobs—compared with 900,000 in the formal sector—many workers are unable to support their families and so become targets for the labor brokers who haunt villages and cities and convince them to get jobs abroad. But as migrant workers, they often experience harsh conditions and lower wages than promised by labor brokers.

In recent weeks, the Solidarity Center and our long-time partner, the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotel, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (KUDHEIHA), joined with other local migrant worker and anti-human trafficking organizations to hold a series of outreach and education efforts in the Mombasa area among local communities, culminating in three migrant worker rights forums.

Although many workers here travel abroad for jobs, primarily to Arab Gulf countries, customs or embarrassment may prevent them from sharing their experiences, and many residents do not have access to credible information on migration. As a result, communities are unaware of the hazards involved in migrating for work.

Before each event, KUDHEIHA organizers went door to door and distributed information pamphlets on the street to provide people with information about the forum and invite them to join.

“Accomplishing gains for domestic workers [in Kenya] seemed impossible, but it was done,” says Livingstone Abukho, KUDHEIHA Mombasa chairman. “Therefore, it can be done for migrant workers.”

Partners in these outreach efforts include TRACE Kenya, Haki Africa, HAART Kenya and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.

Kenya, migrant domestic workers, Solidarity Center

Solidarity Center and our partner KUDHEIHA join with Trace Kenya, Haki Africa and Haart Kenya in a street mobilization in the Majengo area in Mvita, inviting the public to a labor migration forum in Majengo.

A survivor shares her experience working as a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia with community members.

KUDHEIHA staff distributes the Solidarity Center information booklet for Kenya migrant workers in a market in Majengo during door-to-door outreach and invites market vendors to the public forum on labor migration at the chief’s office in Majengo.

Solidarity Center staff sticks a “Support Safe Migration” sticker on a tuk-tuk during the street mobilization in Majengo.

KUDHEIHA staff distributes a Solidarity Center information booklet for Kenya migrant workers to mkokoteni riders (casual laborers), and invite them to the village chief’s office in Majengo for the public forum.

KUDHEIHA staff distributes safe migration booklets to passersby and invites them to the public forum on labor migration in Majengo.

KUDHEIHA staff invites a cyclist to the public forum in the chief’s office at Majengo.

Members of the public await the start of the public forum on labor migration in Majengo.

WOMEN@WORK: MAKING BREAKTHROUGHS WITH THEIR UNIONS

Aug 24, 2017

Despite modest gains in some regions in the world over the past two decades, women are more likely than men to become and remain unemployed, have fewer chances to participate in the workforce and often must accept dangerous, low-paying jobs, according to Women at Work: Trends 2016, a recent report by the International Labor Organization (ILO).

But when women join together to win living wages and decent working conditions through a union or association, women empower themselves and each other in the struggle for economic fairness for themselves, their families and their communities.

“Labor and community organizing can shift power relationships, change working conditions and address barriers to full and equal participation in the labor market,” according to a new report by the AFL-CIO, Solidarity Center and Rutgers University’s Center for Women’s Global Leadership, “Transforming Women’s Work: Policies for an Inclusive Economic Agenda.”

With Solidarity Center support, women around the world are joining and leading unions, advocating for themselves and their co-workers and standing up for the rights of all workers worldwide.

Zimbabwe, informal economy, Solidarity Center

Nyaradzo Tavarwisa makes and sells peanut butter for her home-based business, Dovi World in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe. Nyaradzo, a member of the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations (ZCIEA), a Solidarity Center ally, helps other women ZCIEA members learn the skills involved in the small business. Credit: Solidarity Center/Jemal Countess

Bangladesh, garment worker, safety and health, Solidarity Center, union

Bangladesh garment worker Rina operates a sewing machine at Aliza Fashions Ltd. Rina and her co-workers are among dozens of workers throughout the garment industry who have taken part in Solidarity Center fire safety trainings. Credit: Solidarity Center/Balmi Chisim

This photo of a winding machine driver and construction union member in Kyrgyzstan is among winning images in a 2016 International Women’s Day contest held by the Center on Labor Relations Research (CISTO). Winning photographs from the event, co-sponsored by the Solidarity Center, were on display at the Federation of Trade Unions of Kyrgyzstan. Credit: Djanaliev Nazar

Palestine, kindergarten teacher, Solidarity Center

Kindergarten teacher Khadeja Othman holds a bachelor’s degree from Al Yarmouk University in Jordan and teaches in Ramallah’s Bet Our Al Tahta village. As a member of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions, Othman has taken part in many training workshops sponsored by her union and the Solidarity Center. Credit: Solidarity Center/Alaa Salih

Mexico, Solidarity Center, mine workers, gender equality

A single mother of three and a union steward with the mine workers union, Ruth Rivera, 45, travels through the Fénix mine in La Paz, Mexico. With Solidarity Center support, Rivera and her female co-workers formed Women Miners of Steel to give women a greater voice at the workplace. Credit: Solidarity Center/Robert Armocida

Kenya, domestic worker, human rights, Solidarity Center

Lucy Nyangasi, 26, a domestic worker in Nairobi is a member of the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotel, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (KUDHEIHA), which is helping informal economy workers get rights on the job. Credit: Solidarity Center/Kate Holt

Burma, Myanmar, garment workers, human rights, Solidarity Center

Thein Thein Aye, 23 and Khin Thit Lwin, 30, work at Shwe Mi Plastics Factory in Yangoon, where they are paid $135 per month. Both moved to the city from their villages, where jobs are scarce, and recently joined the Confederation of Trade Unions of Myanmar, a long-time Solidarity Center ally. Credit: Solidarity Center/Jeanne Hallacy

Zimbabwe, electronics, telecommunications, Solidarity Center

In Harare, where Dzidai Magada Mwarozva is director of Human Resources at Destiny Electronics, the National Union of Metal and Allied Industries in Zimbabwe (NUMAIZ), a Solidarity Center partner, represents office workers and truck drivers. Credit: Solidarity Center/Jemal Countess

Jordan, Filipina domestic workers, human trafficking, forced labor, Solidarity Center

Filipina domestic workers who migrated to Jordan for work demonstrate their rights under Jordanian law after taking part in a Solidarity Center-sponsored workshop on combatting trafficking in persons. Credit: Solidarity Center/Francesca Ricciardone

Peru, palm oil workers, women, Solidarity Center

Palm oil workers in San Martin, Peru, bike the Palma del Espino planation where they work and live with their families. The workers in San Martin are represented by two unions, and the Solidarity Center works with them to provide training and education for worker support on the job. Credit: Solidaity Center/Oscar Durand

In Sri Lanka, nurses have a voice on the job through the Government Nursing Officers Association (GNOA), a Solidarity Center ally. Credit: Solidarity Center/Pushpa Kumara

Dominican Republic, informal economy, Solidarity Center

Marisol Rodriguez, who sells medicinal herbs at a San Cristobal market in the Dominican Republic, is among street informal economy workers the Solidarity Center reaches in 35 countries through training to build economic empowerment. Credit: Ricardo Rojas/Solidarity Center

South Africa, farm workers, Solidarity Center

Rural women contribute roughly half of the world’s food, and are especially vulnerable to workplace exploitation. In South Africa, cabbage planters and other farm workers have a voice on the job through the Food and Allied Workers Union. Credit: Solidarity Center/Jemal Countess

Algeria, nurses, unions, Solidarity Center

Algerian nurses at the Hôpital Ben Aknoun are represented by SNAPAP, the country’s largest public-employee union. The Solidarity Center supports SNAPAP’s work with unemployed youth, marginalized and vulnerable women workers and contract (temporary) workers. Credit: Solidarity Center/Zoubir Aksouh

Youth Day 2017: Young Workers Stand up for Their Rights at Work

Aug 11, 2017

With youth unemployment rates at record highs and working poverty levels increasing, young workers around the world faced with a lack of decent jobs increasingly are joining with union movements and worker associations to challenge policies that do not promote an economy that works for all. On International Youth Day, the Solidarity Center recognizes those young workers who are standing up for their rights and making their voices heard at work.

Kyrgyzstan, garment workers, unions, Solidarity Center

Young workers like Kymbat Sherimbayeva are standing up for their rights to decent work and collective bargaining. The Kyrgyzstan garment worker recently joined with some 200 co-workers, most of whom are between the ages of 18 and 25, to improve wages and safety conditions. With the help of trainings provided by the Garment Workers’ Union of Kyrgyzstan, with Solidarity Center support, workers at the factory formed a union, recognizing they could negotiate improvements with management much more effectively as a group than as individuals.

Jane Njoki Muthoni, president of ITUC-Africa Young Workers Committee in 2017. Photo Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell

Unions are reaching out to young workers to develop the next generation of leaders. From Kenya, Jane Njoki Muthoni works to enable young women advance to union leadership positions through her roles as president of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)-Africa Young Workers Committee and youth leader for the Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU)-Kenya. The Kenya union movement “makes sure that it protects the rights of young women, the rights of young workers in society,” says Njoki.

Youth Representatives of Brazil’s CUT at a May Day Rally in 2017. Photo Credit: Maria Robalino.

Young workers are mobilizing in vast numbers to challenge laws and policies that would deny them the ability to attain good wages and stable jobs. For instance in Brazil, young workers were a key force in a 24-hour general strike in May 2017, protesting labor law reforms that penalize mainly unemployed young people and young Afro-Brazilian workers.

A meeting between a union organizer and hotel workers in Sri Lanka in 2015. Photo Credit: Solidarity Center/Pushpa Kumara.

Seeking to reach the many young workers in Sri Lanka’s booming tourism industry, unions launched a web-based platform, Wedabima, for workers to share comments, learn about union-related workshops, and access a labor perspective on daily news. The site is part of the Sri Lankan union movement’s innovative strategies to attract young workers into Sri Lanka’s labor movement.

Zimbabwe, young workers, Solidarity Center, unions

Young Zimbabweans rally against nonpayment of salaries in Bulawayo in 2015. Photo Credit: Abigail Mangunda

Fed up with low pay and a government proposal for at-will employment, Zimbabwean workers spearheaded demonstrations across six cities in 2015, demanding better conditions. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions points to high unemployment as a leading cause of the country’s “brain drain”—the migration of young, educated workers out of country.

A young garment worker demonstrates against safety violations at a 2015 rally commemorating the deadly Rana Plaza collapse. Photo Credit: Solidarity Center.

In the Bangladesh garment industry, where more than 90 percent of workers are age 29 or younger, young workers are leading the drive to achieve workplace safety, decent wages and fair treatment at the workplace by forming unions.

Young workers participate in a May Day rally in Georgia in 2015. Photo Credit: GTUC

The youth chapter of the Georgian Trade Union Confederation came out in force to share May Day celebrations of their rights as workers.

Young workers in Peru rally against a discriminatory labor law in march 2015. Photo Credit: Luis Mendoza

In Peru, after lawmakers in 2015 rammed through a law that reduced salaries and benefits for workers under age 25, tens of thousands of young workers and their allies organized meetings with workers across industries and marched in a series of massive protests. Their efforts resulted in the law’s nearly immediate repeal.