Future of Work

husoana Ntlama FIDA.May Rathakan IDUL.Libakiso Mathlo WLSA.Daniel Maraisane UNITE.8.19.sbb

Garment worker leaders in Lesotho celebrate a new contract that moves toward a dignified, decent future of work. Credit: Solidarity Center/Shawna Bader-Blau

 

The future of work must be shaped by the women and men who are essential to the work process, who build our houses, sew our garments and design our computers. That is why the future of work must be rooted in democracy, the ability of all workers to freely form unions and collectively bargain to assert their fundamental rights in shaping workplaces that are fair, democratic and humane.

The Solidarity Center is advancing a worker-centered future of work through programs that encompass the voices of the Global South, put people before profits and confront the long exclusion of the most marginalized workers, including migrant workers, informal economy workers and women, especially in global supply chains such as the textile industry.

For instance, the Solidarity Center partnered with Lesotho-based unions and women’s rights groups, major fashion brands and international worker rights organizations to negotiate a landmark agreement with factory owner Nien Hsing Textiles that will address the rampant gender-based violence and harassment denying thousands of women garment workers a safe and dignified workplace in Lesotho.

Importantly, the agreement includes the freedom to form unions and collectively bargain, and is worker designed, with workers as full participants, equal in crafting and implementing the future they envision, one that ensures they are treated with dignity and fairness.

 

Justice for Wage Theft: Championing Migrant Workers

Millions of migrant workers trapped in pandemic lockdowns were forced to leave their employers and return home—bearing all the costs even as they often were unpaid for the work they had performed, says Michael Joachim, co-founder and director of the Plantation Rural...

Summit for Democracy: Workers Organizations’ Vital Role

Democracy enables workers and their unions to flourish, and as it is increasingly threatened around the world, democracy also depends on working people and their organizations to keep it vibrant, according to speakers at the high-level event, “Worker Organizations'...

Essential Workers Summit: Building a Just Future for All

Workers who risked their health to provide essential services during the pandemic joined with actors, global union leaders and policymakers in a first-of-its-kind worldwide gathering to share their experiences and demand a response that urgently and effectively...
Justice for Wage Theft: Championing Migrant Workers

Justice for Wage Theft: Championing Migrant Workers

Millions of migrant workers trapped in pandemic lockdowns were forced to leave their employers and return home—bearing all the costs even as they often were unpaid for the work they had performed, says Michael Joachim, co-founder and director of the Plantation Rural...

Summit for Democracy: Workers Organizations’ Vital Role

Summit for Democracy: Workers Organizations’ Vital Role

Democracy enables workers and their unions to flourish, and as it is increasingly threatened around the world, democracy also depends on working people and their organizations to keep it vibrant, according to speakers at the high-level event, “Worker Organizations'...

Essential Workers Summit: Building a Just Future for All

Essential Workers Summit: Building a Just Future for All

Workers who risked their health to provide essential services during the pandemic joined with actors, global union leaders and policymakers in a first-of-its-kind worldwide gathering to share their experiences and demand a response that urgently and effectively...

2022 Annual Report

2022 Annual Report

In 2022, the Solidarity Center marked a quarter century of supporting embattled workers, advocating and litigating for change, and celebrating worker rights advances in troubled times. As crackdowns on fundamental civil rights intensify around the world, workers and...

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