Oct 28, 2024
More than 200 International Lawyers Assisting Workers Network (ILAW) members gathered in Casablanca, Morocco, October 9 to 11 at their 2024 Global Conference to share ideas and to collaborate on legal strategies to promote and defend worker rights.
The Solidarity Center established the ILAW Network in 2018 as a way for pro-labor lawyers worldwide to bring together legal practitioners and scholars in an exchange of ideas and information in order to best represent the rights and interests of workers and their organizations wherever they may be.
ILAW lawyers working together have taken legal strategies that are successful in one country and deploy them elsewhere. In doing so, they have set new legal precedents that build a stronger foundation for the expansion of worker rights around the globe.
Credit: Mosa’ab Elshamy
Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau welcomed attendees, describing the network of over 1,300 members in more than 90 countries as “uniquely situated to take on global corporations suppressing worker rights.”
She cited the successful advocacy of women labor lawyers for new International Labor Organization (ILO) treaties, like Convention 189 on domestic workers and Convention 190 on violence and harassment.
Solidarity Center Rule of Law Director and ILAW Network Chair Jeffrey Vogt laid out the conference’s purpose. “Around the world, the rights of workers and unions are under attack. Employers are well-resourced and coordinated in their efforts to shape law and policy. It is essential that workers and unions do the same. Through ILAW, we can learn from each other, build from successes and failures, and strengthen our impact through legal solidarity.”
Credit: Mosa’ab Elshamy
The importance of interconnectedness was woven throughout many plenary sessions and discussions. Networking, learning from and collaborating across countries and regions was a key part of the conference, as attendees talked about the commonalities of their work.
The opening plenary, moderated by Solidarity Center’s Rule of Law Deputy Director Monika Mehta, focused on the impact of technology in the world of work, including but not only digital platform workers, from Amazon warehouses workers to content moderators for major social media firms.
Panelist Liz Lenjo described the content moderators in Kenya who filed a lawsuit against Meta (the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Threads) and Sama, the local contractor, citing poor working conditions, union busting and inadequate mental health support.
These workers were hired to screen posts, videos and messages for Facebook and remove harmful or offensive content. Workers spent hours viewing violent and disturbing images and videos. They were left on their own to deal with the psychological trauma. In a landmark ruling, the Kenyan court determined it had jurisdiction over Meta.
Credit: Mosa’ab Elshamy
Sandra Muñoz discussed how women in Colombia’s parliament recently passed legislation to harassment in the workplace and linked the fight for equality to equality for all. “Unless we can overcome inequality,” Muñoz said, “we can’t overcome inequality as a whole.”
Kayan Leung also described successful litigation she undertook in South Africa to establish parity in paid parental leave in order that the responsibility of care does not default to women. The ILAW Network filed an amicus brief in that case.
During the panel on Just Transition, Angelica Maria Palacios Martinez spoke about the efforts to get Colombia’s government to recognize trade unions’ essential role in Just Transition and protecting the whole population. “From the trade union world, we have called out the government to recognize us as a key player, she said, “so that these public policies are focused on protecting the entire population, and in particular, protecting the workers.”
Abdullah Nahid of the Maldives, one of the countries most affected by climate change, described union efforts to support workers in the tourism and fisheries sector.
On the panel on the informal economy, Madhulika Tatigotla discussed the growth of the informal economy in India. India’s informal economy continues to grow, as the formal sector continues to informalize as, for example, 40 percent of factory workers are now on temporary contracts. Recently, workers and their legal advocates developed a comprehensive draft law for workers in the informal economy to extend labor rights and benefits.
In the final right to strike plenary, Paapa Danquah noted the increasing international threats to the right to strike, linking it to civil liberties. “The attack on the right to strike on the international level is the first step to taking away the right to strike everywhere,” Danquah said. “Whenever you see attacks on the right to strike, there are also attacks on collective bargaining and civil liberty.” He described how the ITUC was involved in litigation before the International Court of Justice to protect the right to strike as a principle of international law.
As the conference ended, attendees discussed priorities for the coming year, from more collaboration between all members to deepening national and regional labor law networks, cross-pollination between ILAW regions, increasing engagement with social movements and Indigenous communities in order to support union growth. Attendees left the conference energized and committed to forging a robust labor law network for a stronger global labor movement.
Oct 10, 2024
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 now also lists inclusive job openings and accessibility information about the buildings in which those jobs are located.
“Everybody deserves the dignity of full participation in society, including opportunities to acquire jobs-based skills and earn their livelihoods,” says New Age founder and long-term Solidarity Center partner Askar Turdugulov.
In collaboration with experts and civil society organizations and with Solidarity Center support, New Age helped redesign the app to best serve the needs of people with disabilities who are living in Kyrgyzstan. The app’s launch in Bishkek on October 3, gathered key rights activists and political and business leaders, including people with disabilities, civil society organization leaders, employers, Deputy Minister of Labor Kyial Januzakova, Deputy Minister of Education Muratbek Kasymaliev, Bishkek Deputy Mayor Victoria Mozgacheva and key members of parliament.
Event feedback included a recommendation by public association ARDI lawyer Seinep Dyikanbaevato to report the app’s building accessibility ratings to the Bishkek mayor’s office.
A public signing of a Solidarity Center memorandum of understanding during the event, which for the first time also included the Kyrgyz Society of the Blind and Deaf, marks the expansion of a disability rights coalition that, through better access to good jobs, seeks better social and professional integration for people with disabilities in Kyrgyzstan.
Sep 19, 2024
In a precedent-setting case before the International Court of Justice, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) provided written comments last week in a legal dispute over the right to strike.
The dispute, filed in 2023, is the first submitted by the United Nations International Labor Organization (ILO) to the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It arises from the refusal, in 2012, of the ILO Employers Group to recognize that the right to strike is protected by ILO Convention 87, as the ILO supervisory system has recognized since the 1950s.
On September 13, 2024, the ITUC filed its written comments. Oral arguments are expected to begin in the coming months. The ICJ’s advisory opinion is expected in 2025.
“This case is consequential, as the protection of the right to strike is essential not only for workplace democracy, but for democracy as a whole,” says Jeffrey Vogt, Solidarity Center rule of law director, co-author of the book The Right to Strike in International Law and member of the ITUC’s legal team. “The right of workers to withdraw their labor is so fundamentally intrinsic to the exercise of freedom of association and the right to organize that, without it, their very survival and the protection of their dignity as workers is at stake. We hope that the ICJ will agree with our reasoning as contained in our brief and affirm that the right to strike is protected under international law, including ILO Convention No. 87.”
The filing was made on behalf of ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle and Paapa Kwasi Danquah, ITUC director of legal and human and trade union rights, and supported by members of the ITUC legal team, including Vogt, Catelene Passchier, workers vice-chair of the ILO Governing Body, and Monica Tepfer, an ITUC lawyer.
Sep 5, 2024
South Luzon workers from TF Logistics Philippines, Inc., and Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. rose victorious after their certification elections, with both unions committed to collective bargaining and continuous worker rights education.
The Philippine Metalworkers Alliance (PMA) started organizing the two unions last year, aiming to grow its industry affiliates in the region. It also secured a union of drivers and mechanics from RVL Movers Corp. last March.
TF Logistics Philippines Supervisory Union (TFLPSU-PMA) successfully conducted its union elections on August 20. This followed the unionization of the company’s rank-and-file workers way back in 2016, with supervisors actively working toward their own collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
Mary Grace, PMA union organizer, noted a provision in the existing CBA that grants yearly salary increases to rank-and-file workers in TF Logistics, almost closing the income gap with supervisors.
John Edward Nilooban, TFLPSU-PMA president, explained, “Our benefits as supervisors were closely tied to the rank-and-file workers’ CBA, but we recognized the need for our own voice. We aim to secure a CBA on our own prerogative.”
Jonathan Punjong, TFLPSU-PMA secretary, added, “We want to be a part of the solution and a bridge for proper communication between our rank-and-file workers and management.”
Combined, the supervisory and rank-and-file unions at TF Logistics represent about 200 workers.
Auto Workers Choose New Leaders
Meanwhile, the Mitsubishi Motors Workers Union-Philippines (MMWU-P-PMA) held elections for its new leadership on July 30. Established in 1965, the union is a founding member of PMA and represents workers involved in manufacturing cars for the company.
The new union officers emphasized the need to fortify awareness and education on worker rights with its roughly 800 members.
Sergio Ward, Jr., MMWU-P-PMA president, said, “Unionization is not a simple matter. Our members need to be re-educated on the importance of our union and their role in it—that the union is more than just the benefits we enjoy.”
