Media Highlights
[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...
[Southeast Asia Globe] As Road Accidents Rise, Garment Workers Face a Dangerous Commute (Cambodia)
One worker "also worries about her ability to work overtime, which has often been a prerequisite by demanding factory managers for workers keeping their jobs, as the labor rights organization Solidarity Center noted in its 2019 “Alternative Report on Labor Rights and...
[The Diplomat] Fighting Back: Trade Unions in Thailand and Myanmar (podcast)
"Dave Welsh, country director for Thailand and Myanmar of the Solidarity Center, spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about growing support for independent trade unions as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to punish regional economies, forcing businesses to...
[Democratic Voice of Burma] Burma’s Garment Sector Watchdog Is Leaving. What Does This Mean for Brands and Their Workers?
"Dave Welsh of labor rights group Solidarity Center says, 'If [brands] need the public relations benefit of claiming to hire a third-party monitor, waiting for their evaluation, that strikes me as being primarily for public relations purposes, not to actually making a...
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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.