I am Ma Lwin Lwin Mar and 34 years old. I come from Ngaputaw Township in Ayeyarwaddy Region to Hlaing Thar Yar and work in a garment factory. (Hlaing Thar Yar is a factory district outside Yangon, Myanmar's capital, where 700,000 workers make clothes and goods for...
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‘After a Day’s Work, We Are Happy to Still Be Alive’
Win Nay Aung Thant works from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. or 7 p.m., at a garment factory in Myanmar and is paid just enough to survive. The factory's electrical wiring is unsafe and Win says "after a day's work, we are happy to still be alive."
Trafficking Report Highlights Uzbekistan Abuses
Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, two countries where forced labor in cotton harvests is rampant, have been downgraded to the lowest ranking in the U.S. State Department’s 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report released this morning. The report also downgraded Myanmar (Burma)...
Cambodian Men Testify in Thai Fishing Boat Trafficking Case
The case was filed on Tuesday at the court, which accepted the case and immediately heard victim testimony, said Preeda Tongchumnum, another lawyer on the case, who also works with the Solidarity Center, a U.S.-based worker rights organization. Also ran in: The Irrawaddy (Myanmar)
Lwin Lwin Kyaw: After Joining Union, Worksite Problems Solved
I am Ma Lwin Lwin Kyaw. I come from Mawlamyainggyun Township in Ayeyarwaddy Region and work here (in the Hlaing Thar Yar factory district outside Yangon). I started to work in 2012 in the garment factory. I am 26 years old. I joined the trade union (the Confederation...
Celebrating Workers: 2015 Year in Photos
Whether building a towering office building in downtown Zimbabwe, sewing garments in a Bangladesh factory or digging for phosphate in Mexico mines, the world's unsung working people demonstrate, time and again, the dignity of work. Here, we celebrate some of the...
‘I Was a Garment Worker and I Know Exploitation’
The “Made in Jordan” label is familiar to U.S. consumers shopping for shirts, jeans and other clothes. Mervat Jumhawi, a Jordanian union organizer, is actively ensuring the largely migrant workforce that cuts and sews these garments does so in safe conditions,...
In Burma, a Moment in History for Unions
What a difference four months can make. When I first went to Burma in January of this year, some of the Federation of Trade Unions-Burma (FTUB) labor activists I met with were too worried about security forces to meet me in public. The officers of the Agriculture and...
Burmese Trade Unions Fail to Find a ‘Safe Place’ to Organize
Workers in Burma, also known as Myanmar, are well under way to building independent trade unions in multiple sectors. In Yangon (Rangoon), the capital, the Solidarity Center’s Tim Ryan spoke with union organizers about forming independent unions and the current...
After Two Decades of Darkness, a Daybreak in Burma?
Almost 22 years ago, the National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide in a free and fair election in Burma—but the military dictatorship refused to let the NLD take power. Instead, the ruling junta crushed the organization and imprisoned its members and...