The COVID-19 pandemic has hit workers hard—but women have especially suffered compared with men, experiencing higher rates of unemployment, discrimination and exposure to the virus, and skyrocketing rates of gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH), speakers said...
Search Results
Myanmar: Unions Organize General Strike as Military Violently Cracks Down
Trade unions shuttered workplaces and brought thousands of people to the streets Monday in Myanmar, mobilizing a general strike as part of their continued resistance to the military takeover of the government on February 1. In a statement calling for a nationwide...
The Union Difference in Guatemala Banana Plantations
Unionized workers on Guatemala banana plantations earn more, work fewer hours, face less sexual harassment, and have safer workplaces, including during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a Solidarity Center report. (The report also is available in Spanish.) “What...
Report: Freedom to Form Unions Key to Women’s Activism
Women activists and their organizations are the drivers of positive change worldwide—and the freedom to form unions and freely associate is key to their ability to do so, according to a report released today. “Celebrating Women in Civil Society and Activism,” prepared...
West Africa’s Health Workers Sound Alarm, Unions Propose Solutions
A new survey of 700 health workers in six West African countries—Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo—provides a window into health-sector shortcomings that are compounding the region’s ability to respond effectively to the COVID-19 crisis. The...
Tunisia Union Campaign Wins Big Victory for Workers with Disabilities
When the Tunisian Parliament this summer approved a law increasing the percentage of people with disabilities in civil service, union activists and their allies in the disability rights and human rights movements took a moment to celebrate the victory—and to reflect...
Report: Death Threats Among Anti-Union Violence in Guatemala
Threats, including death threats, and intimidation were the most common forms of violence against union activists and workers seeking to form unions in Guatemala last year, according to a new report by the Network of Labor Rights Defenders of Guatemala (REDLG). (Read...
Global: Unions Stand with Black Lives Matter Movement
Around the world, workers and their labor unions and have joined in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protesters in the United States, demonstrating support for peaceful marches, and decrying racism, police brutality and inequality—in the United States and in...
Report Documents Anti-Union Violence in Honduras
Two union leaders in Honduras were murdered in 2019, and dozens more physically attacked, threatened and harassed for their activism in advocating worker rights, according to the just-released report, The Price of Defending Freedom of Association: A Report on...
Black Lives Matter: Unions Must Be a Force for Social Justice
The Solidarity Center believes that Black Lives Matter and stands unequivocally with the millions of Americans and allies around the world peacefully calling for equality for Black people and an end to all forms of racist violence. These mass demonstrations are a...
Thai Unions Rally in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter
About 50 trade union leaders, staff and members gathered for a rally today to call on the U.S. government to stop police violence, racism and discrimination against black people. The Black Lives Matter rally at the U.S. embassy in Bangkok was organized by the State...
Women & Their Unions Stand Strong during COVID-19
In Tunisia, 150 women garment workers self-quarantined in their factory to manufacture desperately needed protective masks, churning out 50,000 a day as the COVID-19 crisis broke out. The South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU) reached an agreement...
Stepping into the Breach: Unions Provide Key Aid in COVID-19
More than four out of five people (81 percent) in the global workforce of 3.3 billion are currently affected by full or partial workplace closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some 1.25 billion workers are employed in the sectors identified as being at high risk of...
Unions Lead Creation of a Feminist World of Work
In Honduras, where nearly all 19 union organizations in the garment sector have negotiated collective bargaining agreements that significantly boost wages and provide benefits like free transportation to and from work and educational funds for workers and their...
Unions Leading: Creation of a Feminist World of Work
Wednesday, March 11, 2020 In a parallel event in conjunction with the 64th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), this Solidarity Center-cosponsored event will provide worker, human and women's rights organizations a forum to discuss...
Bangladesh Garment Workers: New Blocks to Form Unions
In Bangladesh, garment workers often seek to form unions and worker associations to better protect against wage theft, unfair treatment and lack of health and safety protections, including large-scale safety threats like building collapses. Yet they increasingly are...
With Unions, Informal Economy Workers Gain Rights
Taxi drivers in Ghana, tortilla vendors in Honduras and Asian domestic workers in countries across the Gulf region—all are part of the world’s informal economy, comprising 2 billion workers or 61 percent of the global workforce. Although informal economy workers...
Global Groups Fear Safety of Honduran Union Leader
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Network Against Anti-Union Violence in Honduras are urging the government to drop all charges against Moisés Sánchez, safeguard his protection as a human rights defender under threat, and ensure he can freely...
Union Women Rock 16 Days of Activism Against GBVH
During the recent 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, workers and their unions from Honduras to Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Nigeria and Bangladesh made big gains raising awareness about gender-based violence and harassment at work (GBVH) and demanding that...
Study: Gender Violence Rife in Brazil Garment Factories
The vast majority of women in Brazil’s textile and shoe factories who took part in a recent study say they have experienced some form of violence at work, often gender-based violence and harassment—to the extent that “for many women, work is synonymous with...