Global Supply Chains

Cambodia, supply chains, garment worker, Solidarity Center, worker rights, human rights

Heng Rithy, a garment worker in Cambodia, says her factory has good working conditions and she can support her family because workers have a union. Credit: Solidarity Center/Shanleystudio

An estimated 450 million people work in global supply chains—in textiles, retail, fisheries, electronics, construction, tourism, transport and agriculture. Economic globalization has created benefits for consumers, business and suppliers, but the practice of sourcing goods and services from countries where wages are low and laws are lax often results in jobs that are insecure and informal, involving dangerous workplaces, forced overtime and even slavery.

The Solidarity Center works with unions, worker associations and other allies in countries throughout the global supply chain in countries such as Bangladesh, Honduras, Lesotho, Morocco and Uzbekistan to address poverty wages, dangerous and unsafe working conditions and limited rights on the job.

For instance in Lesotho, the Solidarity Center partnered with labor rights and women’s rights organizations to negotiate a worker-centered, precedent-setting program to comprehensively address the rampant gender-based violence and harassment denying thousands of women garment workers a safe and dignified workplace. The Solidarity Center is helping lead training in addressing and preventing sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence among 10,000 workers at five factories there.

Migrant workers comprise a large part of the global supply chain, traveling to countries such as Malaysia to work in factories and to Gulf countries as domestic workers. The Solidarity Center partners with unions such as the Central Organization of Trade Unions-Kenya and the Kuwait Trade Union Federation to advocate for policies and legislation that address the exploitation and abuse migrant workers face, and educate workers who plan to work abroad about labor laws and workplace rights in their origin and destination countries.

Thai Workers Win Historic $8.3 Million in Back Pay, Financed by Victoria’s Secret

Solidarity Center
Solidarity Center
Thai Workers Win Historic $8.3 Million in Back Pay, Financed by Victoria’s Secret
Loading
/

Podcast: Thai Fast Food Workers Fight for a Fair Share

The Fight for $15 movement in the United States, in which workers seek a living wage and a union, is part of a global struggle by fast food workers often employed by the same multinational corporations that make massive profits even as their employees struggle to get...

[Reuters] Is the Thai government punishing anti-human trafficking advocates?

Dave Welsh, Thailand director for the Solidarity Center, noted: “Sawit has been out front and extremely impactful in his work to welcome and integrate migrant workers into the Thai labor movement. Given the political sensitivities within the government and the...
Thai Workers Win Historic $8.3 Million in Back Pay, Financed by Victoria’s Secret

Thai Workers Win Historic $8.3 Million in Back Pay, Financed by Victoria’s Secret

Solidarity Center
Solidarity Center
Thai Workers Win Historic $8.3 Million in Back Pay, Financed by Victoria’s Secret



Loading





/

Podcast: Thai Fast Food Workers Fight for a Fair Share

Podcast: Thai Fast Food Workers Fight for a Fair Share

The Fight for $15 movement in the United States, in which workers seek a living wage and a union, is part of a global struggle by fast food workers often employed by the same multinational corporations that make massive profits even as their employees struggle to get...

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...

read more

Pin It on Pinterest