Equality & Inclusion

The Solidarity Center supported the development of the Afro-Colombian Labor Council, the first national organization in Colombia dedicated to improving the working conditions of Afro-descendants. Credit: Solidarity Center/Rhett Doumitt

The Solidarity Center engages with unions and their allies through an analysis and practice of equality, radical inclusion and intersectionality that is explicitly feminist, anti-racist, pro-equality, pro-worker, pro-migrant and class conscious.

The Solidarity Center designs and implements strategies to confront the multiple and intersecting forms of oppression that contribute to economic structures in which women and other groups of workers are devalued and excluded from economic and social equality. This requires a conscious effort to examine how oppressive forces play out throughout the global labor movement with a commitment to dismantle these systems. Explicit in this work is the understanding that the agency and leadership of the most marginalized workers are key components of decent work and economic justice for all.

The Solidarity Center has assisted unions and their allies in countries such as Cambodia, Colombia, Georgia, Honduras, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Nigeria, Nicaragua, South Africa and Tunisia to ensure meaningful participation of historically excluded and marginalized workers in unions and other democratic structures.

See related factsheetsvideos and reports.

In Morocco, the Solidarity Center supported a multi-year effort to build women worker power and gender equality which led to the inclusion of women workers during negotiations for the first collective bargaining agreement in the informal agriculture sector. In Colombia, the Solidarity Center supported the development of the first national organization dedicated to improving the working conditions of Afro-Colombians.

In Kyrgyzstan, Morocco and Tunisia, Solidarity Center is assisting in strengthening union efforts to promote inclusion of individuals with disabilities. In Nicaragua, Solidarity Center supports domestic workers as they address inclusion of LGBTQI union members to ensure they can represent themselves, articulate their priorities and increase their leadership opportunities and visibility.

The Solidarity Center:

  • Conducts research and awareness-raising to challenge systems of oppression and inform inclusive approaches to building worker power across social identities at all levels
  • Supports representative, inclusive leadership in our partner organizations
  • Engages in cross-movement work to combat tools of oppression that impact women, including gender-based violence and harassment at work
  • Brings together unions and community groups to identify shared socioeconomic struggles, analyzes how those struggles are linked to systemic racism and implements organizing, legal and advocacy strategies to collectively overcome the oppression that entraps workers in poverty
  • Advocates for economic policies that uproot systemic discrimination and exploitation in labor markets.

Kyrgyzstan: Disability Rights Coalition Expands Jobs App, Reach

With disability rights organization New Age foundation, the Solidarity Center supported the re-launch of job search mobile phone app, "Ten Ishte" for people with disabilities in Kyrgyzstan. The app, which translated means "Equal Work," was previously informational but...

Report: With Unions, Workers Experience Less Heat Stress

Workers suffering from heat and other environmental stresses are best able to address the effects of climate change when they do so collectively, such as through their unions—especially when they can bargain collectively, according to Laurie Parsons of Royal Holloway,...

Latin American Domestic Workers Celebrate, Plan to Expand Success

When a group of domestic worker leaders in Latin America met to discuss how best to improve the union movement, they agreed leadership training would be key to build growing unions. Eight years later, the Leadership for Unity, reNewal and Amplification (LUNA) has...
Kyrgyzstan: Disability Rights Coalition Expands Jobs App, Reach

Kyrgyzstan: Disability Rights Coalition Expands Jobs App, Reach

With disability rights organization New Age foundation, the Solidarity Center supported the re-launch of job search mobile phone app, "Ten Ishte" for people with disabilities in Kyrgyzstan. The app, which translated means "Equal Work," was previously informational but...

Report: With Unions, Workers Experience Less Heat Stress

Report: With Unions, Workers Experience Less Heat Stress

Workers suffering from heat and other environmental stresses are best able to address the effects of climate change when they do so collectively, such as through their unions—especially when they can bargain collectively, according to Laurie Parsons of Royal Holloway,...

Latin American Domestic Workers Celebrate, Plan to Expand Success

Latin American Domestic Workers Celebrate, Plan to Expand Success

When a group of domestic worker leaders in Latin America met to discuss how best to improve the union movement, they agreed leadership training would be key to build growing unions. Eight years later, the Leadership for Unity, reNewal and Amplification (LUNA) has...

2023 Annual Report

2023 Annual Report

In 2023, the Solidarity Center supported workers as they took on exploitative multinational companies and robot algorithms, demanded their governments tackle social ills and deliver on promises, and fought for justice in environments increasingly dangerous to those...

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In Their Own Words: Workers Address Gender-Based Violence & Harassment in South Africa’s Garment Factories and Clothing Retail Stores

In Their Own Words: Workers Address Gender-Based Violence & Harassment in South Africa’s Garment Factories and Clothing Retail Stores

In South Africa, 98 percent of women garment and retail workers surveyed in 2022 said they had experienced one or more forms of gender-based violence or harassment, including physical abuse, unwanted sexual advances, psychological abuse, bullying and rape. To better...

read more

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