Media Highlights
[Washington Post] Under Biden, U.S. Sees Unions as Key Ally in Democracy Agenda
“Unions are the largest civil society organizations in any country, they are membership-based, sustainable, and are themselves examples of democratic practice,” said Shawna Bader-Blau, the executive director of the Solidarity Center. “Weak or strong, they have...
ZNBC Today Interview with Solidarity Center Staff about the Lusaka Summit for Democracy (Africa)
Unions and workers across Africa need to be a part of government meetings about trade agreements, said Christopher Johnson, Solidarity Center Africa regional program director. "Worker rights need to be part of the conversation," he said. [minute 3:40]
[Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association News] Authorities Aided Alleged Union-Busting at Puma-Supplying Factory (Cambodia)
The global brands purchasing from Southeast Asia’s garment factories often do little to intervene unless facing sustained pressure, said Dave Welsh, Burma and Thailand country director for labor rights NGO Solidarity Center, who also worked in Cambodia from 2010 to...
[The Guardian] How Big Brands Like Tesco Are Drawn to ‘Wild West of Global Supply Chain’ (Thailand)
David Welsh, Solidarity Center’s Thailand country director, said: “Most people don’t know about Mae Sot. The same trends found in other supplying markets are there, however; namely a jurisdiction where the rule of law is weak, where wages and labor conditions are...
[Human Rights Watch] Only “Instant Noodle” Unions Survive (Cambodia)
Twenty-three of the interviews were with local union leaders and rank-and-file members. Representatives of the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights (CENTRAL), the Workers’ Rights Consortium, Solidarity Center and the Clean Clothes Campaign were also...
[Fibre2Fashion] Haiti should raise garment workers’ living wage: Solidarity Center
Haiti garment workers should be paid four times their current salaries just to keep pace with the cost of living, a new Solidarity Center study has found.
[Southeast Asia Globe] Severance pay remains a struggle for Southeast Asian workers
If severance cases continue to be treated individually and the garment industry and governments do not implement measures to prevent wage theft, no brand will make serious efforts to reform supply chains, said David Welsh, Solidarity Center country program director...
[The Nation] Unions Protect Democracy. How Do We Protect Unions?
David Welsh, country director for Thailand and Burma at the Solidarity Center, explains that “workers who have been messed [with] again and again are confusing their belief that democracy doesn’t work with the fact that capitalism doesn’t work.”
[AP] Thai garment workers win $8.3M in back pay after layoffs
David Welsh, Thailand country director of the Solidarity Center, called the settlement a “huge victory” for the garment workers. “Low-wage garment workers left destitute by injustice meted out by global supply chains is nothing new,” he said. ”What’s new is they did...
[Open Democracy] Decent Work for All, Including Migrants
"The serious, systematic and pervasive ways that migrants have been excluded, exploited and marginalized have been well-documented for decades. But the Global Compact on Migration, which UN member states signed into effect four years ago, has the potential to help...
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Media Mentions is a daily digest of major media coverage of issues that affect workers, workers’ rights, and workers’ organizations overseas, discusses the impact of globalization, or mentions the work of the Solidarity Center.