World Cotton Day – October 9, 2024: As ubiquitous as cotton is in our everyday lives, the workers who produce and harvest this foundational crop are often invisible. This was long the case in Uzbekistan, where for decades the government forcibly mobilized millions of people, sometimes including children, to harvest cotton for state-owned enterprises. A long-running global advocacy campaign led by the Cotton Campaign, of which Solidarity Center was a founding member, helped push the government to implement reforms that brought that system to an end in 2021.
Ending state-organized forced labor was a major accomplishment, but establishing just and equitable working conditions in the cotton sector is a longer journey. With support from the U.S. Department of Labor, the Solidarity Center is working to put in place building blocks that will allow workers to ensure their rights are protected. The Solidarity Center signed an agreement with the Ministry of Employment and Poverty Reduction of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the project’s co-implementing partner, the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), in December 2022 to begin project work. As the 2023 harvest season gets underway, Solidarity Center and CIPE are working closely with stakeholders in government, civil society and business to work from the field up and from oversight authorities down to build knowledge within the cotton sector about fundamental rights and strengthen mechanisms to ensure those rights are secured.
For the 2023 harvest, this includes:
In collaboration with the ministry’s labor inspection and legal team, the Solidarity Center and CIPE have prepared and printed more than 10,000 leaflets for distribution to cotton pickers during the ongoing harvest season. These leaflets provide cotton pickers with accessible and comprehensive information about their fundamental rights as seasonal workers under Uzbekistan’s Labor Code. The content covers essential worker protections and includes critical contact information, such as the Labor Inspection hotline and a project-run Telegram channel, where workers can anonymously report violations and seek free legal consultation. The leaflets have been also distributed to groups working in different regions across Uzbekistan to maximize outreach. This initiative plays a crucial role in raising awareness among seasonal workers, ensuring they are informed of their rights and the enforcement mechanisms available to them if their rights are violated. Providing clear and accessible information about legal protections and enforcement channels will be essential to empowering cotton workers to assert their rights, and increased awareness is critical to improving compliance with international labor standards, which is the route to creating a more sustainable and transparent cotton sector.
The Solidarity Center, in partnership with the Tashkent Mediation Center and the State Labor Inspectorate, successfully conducted a two-day training session October 2–3 in Tashkent aimed at enhancing the capacity of mediators to resolve individual labor disputes. The training, facilitated by a regional expert, introduced participants to mediation as an alternative mechanism for labor dispute resolution. The comprehensive curriculum, a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical exercises, equipped 10 mediators from the Tashkent Mediation Center and Labor Inspection staff with the skills to mediate and effectively resolve individual labor disputes. The head of the Labor Inspectorate emphasized the importance of continued collaboration and capacity building as critical to providing workers in the cotton sector with an effective remedy for labor rights violations.
These harvest-period activities supplement an ongoing rights awareness and education program the Solidarity Center and CIPE are implementing with workers and employers in the cotton sector. A core priority of that program in the coming year will be to ensure that all workers in the cotton sector have a written employment contract with clear, enforceable conditions of work. Employment contracts are vital to healthy labor relations that, unfortunately, are absent in many agricultural supply chains.
Recent reforms in Uzbekistan requiring labor contracts for all workers in cotton production have the potential to help the country distinguish itself as a high-road option for textile sourcing, if those reforms can be implemented and enforced. Developing workplace-level reporting and monitoring systems for workers to verify their rights are being respected, and to seek remedy if they are not, will be an important next step to positioning Uzbekistan as a leader in developing sustainable and just textile supply chains.
Funding is provided by the United States Department of Labor under cooperative agreement number IL-38908-22-75-K, through a sub-award from the Solidarity Center. 100% of the total costs of the project or program is financed with federal funds, for a total of $1,018,814. This material does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the United States Department of Labor, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the United States Government.
The Solidarity Center, in collaboration with the Migrant Forum in Asia and Building and Wood Workers’ International, held its first Philippine multi-stakeholder consultation on the Global Compact for Safe, Regular and Orderly Migration (GCM) in preparation for its larger regional counterpart in February next year and its international implementation review in 2026.
The national convention on September 26–27 sought recommendations from migrant advocacy groups, provincial overseas Filipino worker (OFW) associations and federations, public employment service offices from local government units, the Foreign Affairs department, the Migrant Workers department, recruitment agencies and trade unions.
The GCM review process serves as an opportunity for stakeholders to hold the Philippine government accountable for actions relating to labor migration governance and protection of the rights of Filipino migrant workers. The count of OFWs last year jumped to 2.16 million from 1.96 million in 2022, with total remittances at 2.39 billion pesos (approximately $42.4 million), according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
The engagement included workshops on freedom of association, the care economy and gender, fair and ethical recruitment, access to social protection and justice, and dignified return and sustainable reintegration. A plenary consolidation of recommendations followed, which the Migrant Workers department also noted for its own report to the 2026 GCM review.
Recommendations for labor migration governance pivoted on increased collaboration among all stakeholders, institutionalizing programs at the local level, and a stricter implementation of existing policies.
Rosalina Bayan, organizer at Kanlungan Center Foundation, said, “I hope proper mechanisms can be developed, where the government and civil society organizations collaborate to build trust among migrant workers in seeking help from duty bearers and agencies who are willing and able to help them.”
Organizing a union of more than 200 factory workers in an economic processing zone is a feat in itself, but doing so in just nine months amid management intimidation proves the power of solidarity.
On September 3, more than 60 percent of rank-and-file workers from Hyde Sails Cebu, Inc., a sail manufacturing company, voted union yes in their certification election, with high hopes of negotiating for better benefits and wage increases.
Lucil T. Loquinario, president of the Progressive Labor Union of Hyde Sails (PLUHS-PIGLAS), said earlier this year, “In a union, you will know the true stand and strength of a person,” adding that, “We want to dispel the myth that unions are bad or illegal.”
Fast forward to today, Loquinario noted constant education and pooling strength from each member as the main drivers of their victory. “It is better that all workers know their right to organize and know what we rightfully deserve as written in law. Since management does not let us know, it is only through this endeavor that I know the due process and defense we have as workers.”
The idea of forming a union came to Loquinario in December last year, when she was inspired by a friend who informed her of her rights as a worker. She started getting curious about the benefits her co-workers could be entitled to, along with the automatic 30-day suspension they are bound to when damages are found on manufactured sails.
Loquinario said their organizing started in January—with education seminars and friendly fireside chats with co-workers through May, when the majority of workers was already pro-union. However, word of a budding union reached management.
Loquinario detailed how management started calling them rebels, even installing a security camera in the workplace canteen a few days before the election date to allegedly intimidate workers who planned to vote union yes. She added that management appealed to the Labor department and accused the newly formed union of vote buying for passing out slices of bread to hungry voters after the election.
“It’s worse now,” she said. “Even with a five-minute lapse in break time, they sent a memo to my co-workers.”
Loquinario detailed how, after the election, management started increasing surveillance and demanding written explanations from workers who returned from break a few minutes late. “It is an unreasonable and unfair labor practice,” she said.
While these actions have caused delays in securing their collective bargaining agreement, Loquinario and the union remain hopeful, stressing the importance of having “lakas ng loob,” a Filipino adage for courage.
“We hope this has a good result where we can achieve our goals as workers in proper communication with management,” she said. “Because my co-workers are there, I have more courage to fight for what is right.”
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, University of London.
“People are experts on their experience with heat,” said Parsons. “A key neglected area is to adapt to the challenge by acknowledging workers are their own experts.”
Studying garment workers, street vendors and informal economy workers, the report concluded that unionized workers are better able to mitigate heat stress at work than workers without a union.
Rising temperatures are significantly affecting workers. More than 70 percent of workers worldwide are at risk from severe heat. While outdoor workers—such as those growing food or building communities—are among those most affected, workers suffer from heat exposure in factories, warehouses and during daily commutes.
The study finds that 55.5 percent of those surveyed report experienced at least one environmental impact in their workplaces in the past 12 months, with air pollution the most common (30.5 percent), followed by extreme heat (25.5 percent) and flooding (9 percent).
The report shows that unionized workers experience half as much heat stress as nonunionized workers, and found that collective bargaining is the most effective form of collectively protecting workers from heat stress.
Workers whose unions bargained over heat experience 74 percent fewer minutes at dangerously high core body temperatures.
As a result, Parsons demonstrates that detailed attention to workers’ bodies to monitor heat “doesn’t cost a lot of money.”
But up to now, heat stress has not been addressed primarily because workers in Cambodia and elsewhere often find it difficult to form a union.
Overcoming Challenges to Joining a Union
“Workers face real obstruction,” said Somalay So, Solidarity Center senior program officer for equality, inclusion and diversity in Cambodia. So shared with panelists the ways in which employers deter workers from forming unions, the difficulties in obtaining union status to negotiate and, when workers win a union, the challenges they face when attempting to negotiate their first contract.
Yet, “despite all these challenges, workers try to achieve smaller agreements,” So said.
She described five innovative heat stress agreements that unions achieved in which a factory agreed to turn on its cooling systems and fans if the factory temperature rose above more than 35 degrees celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), and assigned mechanics to investigate, suggest and implement other measures if this is ineffective. To ensure companies do not argue that it is not too hot for employees to work, unions have negotiated a clause in which the factory installs a thermometer.
Union leaders also convince employers to protect workers by pointing out that it benefits the bottom line: “It is good for their reputation,” So said, adding that heat not only causes heart and lung problems and lower incomes for workers, it slows workers and their productivity.
Climate Change and Work
Workers experiencing forced migration or who work at informal economy jobs such as food vendors and waste pickers are significantly affected by heat stress because they have little or no formal protection under the law, said Nash Tysmans, organizer for Asia at StreetNet International.
“Some 61 percent of the global workforce are informal workers, yet over half of workers are the most underrepresented” by collective bargaining agreements, she said on the panel. The report found that informal economy workers are in unions experience less exposure to extreme heat.
Women workers are especially vulnerable. In Cambodia, where 85 percent of garment workers are women, heat stress can lead to gender-based violence, So said. Heat stress leads to workplace violence and harassment, with employers often responding to falling productivity leading to violence and harassment rather than addressing heat stress issues.
“When their income drops because of climate change, it translates into domestic violence and trafficking,” she said. Workers experiencing violence may leave their area or country to make a living, and can become targets of unscrupulous labor brokers. “Violence and harassment happens more with heat stress. When there is heat stress, women and children are vulnerable even at home.”
Parsons, a professor at Royal Holloway, University of London, and expert on the social, political and economic aspects of climate change, previously researched a 2022 report for the Solidarity Center in Cambodia.
“When people can exercise their rights as workers without repression, not only can they improve their own working conditions, but they can raise standards across workplaces, industries, and across society more broadly,” said moderator Sonia Mistry, Solidarity Center climate and labor justice director.
Said So: “A strong union is when you are able to organize,” so “unions can be at the negotiating table to resolve issues of workers.
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 involved some 200 leaders from across the continent who have gone on to develop strategies that improved their organizing, advocacy, leadership and movement-building skills—while gaining tens of thousands of new union members.
The LUNA leadership program included nearly 200 domestic workers. Credit: Solidarity Center / Alexis de Simone
“We went above and beyond our own expectations,” said Adriana Paz, LUNA co-creator and general secretary of the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF). “It was a learning for all of us. It was not easy,” said Paz, describing the intensive training for leaders. (The IDWF recently published a statement on the importance of domestic workers.)
Paz recently joined other domestic worker-leaders and Solidarity Center staff for a discussion with Four Corners, whose evaluation team assessed the multiple-year trainings. The report, “From Silos to Solidarity,” found LUNA’s approaches were effective in achieving the Solidarity Center’s and domestic worker movement’s shared goals to empower domestic worker activists, strengthen civic engagement among workers and their communities, advance leadership development and foster worker protections. The report also discussed lessons learned that offer potential for replication across other regions and labor programs.
LUNA “showed the importance of taking time with people,” said Sarah McKenzie, Solidarity Center program strategy and innovation director. “It’s a real lesson about movement building.”
Healing, Growing and So Much More
Domestic worker leaders found during the LUNA program that the first step toward growing a union involves healing themselves.
Domestic worker leaders found the first step toward growing a union involves healing themselves. Credit: Solidarity Center/Alexis de Simone
From the beginning, they knew they needed “a leadership school that really addresses the human soul,” said Paz. However, they did not anticipate the power of healing.
The LUNA program involves training in organizing strategies, political education and building new models of leadership. It also applies somatics, a holistic approach that recognizes the intricate connection between mind and body.
“LUNA achieved our healing, improving us not just for others but ourselves as well,” said Carmen Britez, LUNA co-creator and IDWF president. “We leaders did not know what somatics was, what it would be for us. With somatics, we are able to be healthy.”
Further, said Britez, “often, we do not realize all the work that as leaders we undertake. Now, our sisters can mentor other sisters and see them progress.”
Expanding Achievements
Ruth Diaz, IDWF executive committee member and early LUNA graduate and facilitator, said that in LUNA “we see the incalculable value of domestic work. We see LUNA results in Latin America and hope to replicate it around the world.”
Domestic workers sign a photo of Myrtle Wibooi, founding member of IDWF. Credit: Solidarity Center / Alexis de Simone
As the other leaders who took part in discussing the program’s assessment, Diaz said “we are really amazed by how much we have achieved. Members are more and more ambitious, they want to do more.”
At the start of the LUNA program, domestic workers hoped to increase union membership by 5,000, Britez said. That number instead rose to 15,000 and soon, 37,000 new members—a success that leaders such as Britez say could not have happened without LUNA’s “powerful intervention.”
As they connected though LUNA, they also joined together for the first time across Latin America to work with governments on key issues. In Paraguay, they spoke of their concerns in a social dialogue with decision makers. In Brazil, FENATRAD leaders secured support and implementation for key public policies to improve working conditions by launching the Programa Mulheres Mil, a professional education program that will guarantee access to formal education and financial assistance to hundreds of women.
FENATRAD leaders are part of the program’s management committee and are also acting as educators in four of six cities. Their advocacy efforts secured the approval of a federal law that inserts International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention189 on domestic workers into Brazilian legislation.
“We support ourselves and our sisters—that’s the impact of this program,” said Britez.
Evaluation Demonstrates LUNA’s Success
The evaluation report included eight “themes” or goals, such as “Cultivating Resilience for Empowered Leadership” and “Driving Collective Action for Inclusive Democracy.” The evaluation discussed the success of each and examined the “lessons learned” applicable in Latin America and globally.
Through LUNA, domestic worker leaders increased union membership from a few thousand to 37,000. Credit: Solidarity Center/ Alexis de Simone
The project’s construction was a key part of the success, says Alaa Shelbaia, Solidarity Center deputy director for program quality, learning and compliance.
“The somatic practices element creates a space for emerging leaders to recognize their challenges and ensure a healthy transition to exercise power and fully engage in the labor movement as they embraceshared decision-making, collaborate with unions and build unity among unions at a regional level,” she said.
Latin America has up to 18 million domestic workers, most of whom are women, and 16 Latin American countries have ratified ILO Convention 189. To educate workers about their rights and mobilize them for collective action, LUNA included leadership development, campaign support and regional networking and collaboration for national and international domestic worker-leaders across Latin America.
“It’s very gratifying seeing our sisters growing and evolving,” said Cleide Pinto, graduate of LUNA and general secretary of CONLACTRAHO (Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Domestic Workers).
“We are continuing to work on this project because of all we have achieved on a personal level,” said Britez. “This is about workers driving their own project.”
LUNA is a collaboration of the IDWF, CONLACTRAHO, somatics facilitators, the Solidarity Center and donors such as the National Endowment for Democracy and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation. LUNA was also supported for one year by USAID (via the Global Labor Program), CARE International and Open Society Foundation.
Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau mourns the passing of AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Bill Lucy.
The word “giant” is thrown around so often that it can seem meaningless. But I can’t think of a better word to describe Bill Lucy.
Bill was a giant in the U.S. labor movement—as Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and founder of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU). He was a giant in the civil rights movement and a once-in-a-generation leader whose impact will be felt forever. He was famously with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. when he was assassinated in 1968, there in support of striking sanitation workers, the majority of whom were Black. His work was about forging a deep connection between the civil rights and labor rights movements in the United States.
We were honored that Bill, or “Mr. Lucy,” as so many of us fondly called him, was a founding board member of Solidarity Center. Hewas also an elected leader for many years at Public Services International (PSI). Our connection as Solidarity Center and our global union partners to the CBTU in the United States was Bill Lucy’s vision. He was a committed internationalist who believed in human rights and democracy for all.
Mr. Lucy championed the cause of many trade unionists around the world. He was among the first U.S. union leaders to build bridges to the Brazilian labor movement after the founding of Solidarity Center. He went to Zimbabwe in the early 2000s in solidarity with the trade unions who were facing repression, and was confronted by that same repression, but never stopped shining a light on that movement for democracy. A decade ago, while still with AFSCME and PSI and as a Solidarity Center board member, he received the first Palestinian labor delegation to the United States in our offices. Bill was also a mentor and friend to so many of us. We will miss him dearly.
There are many tributes to Mr. Lucy’s life and great works—here are a few.
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