Dec 1, 2017
Worker rights advocates from across the Middle East and North Africa strategized and networked over three days in Casablanca, Morocco. Caption: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell
Ending human trafficking. Ensuring all employers treat workers fairly. Giving voice to migrant workers around the world. Creating a world in which women are treated equally to men.
These are some of the broad goals participants at the Solidarity Center Forum on Decent Work Forum for Agricultural Women and Domestic Workers identified in a morning ice breaker on the final day of the November 29–December 1 conference in Casablanca.
“If I had a magic wand, I would do away with all oppression. I would do away with all inequalities,” says Farah Abdallah, with the National Federation of Employees’ and Workers’ Unions in Lebanon (FENASOL).
Some 30 participants at the conference then explored how to put their hopes and dreams into action, building on two days’ discussions in which they shared their challenges and successes in winning worker rights on farms and in households throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
Sponsored by the Solidarity Center and the Democratic Labor Confederation (CDT) in Morocco, the Forum includes representatives of unions and worker associations from Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon and Morocco.
Creating Positive Change Takes Collective Action
Making positive change takes the kind of collective strength workers gain in unions—Kalthoum Barkallah. Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell
Participants proposed lobbying government and advocating for national laws covering worker rights as key steps forward. For instance, several participants discussed the need to press for an end to the kefala sponsorship system in Arab Gulf countries which ties migrant workers to their employers, effectively denying them all fundamental rights.
Campaigning for ratification of International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions like those covering domestic worker rights also is key, participants say, as is regulating labor brokers who often charge migrant workers exorbitant fees and give them false information on wages and working conditions.
Yet as Kalthoum Barkallah pointed out, it takes collective action to successfully press for laws and create broad change. And collective action means workers joining together in unions or associations—and connecting with other kindred groups.
“One association cannot achieve a lot. You must have a network of people and organizations for our lobbying efforts to be strong enough to change the mind of decision makers,” says Barkallah, Solidarity Center senior program officer in Tunisia, who led the day’s sessions.
Bouhaya Adiabdelali, a farm worker and union steward from Morocco, joined more than two dozen worker rights advocates for a Solidarity Center forum in Casablanca. Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell
“We have seen throughout our conference that the conditions for decent work do not exist in many places. It is incumbent upon us as civil society to address that.”
“No worker is an unorganizable,” says Elizabeth Tang, general secretary for the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF), sharing her experiences working with domestic workers in Hong Kong, SAR and around the world. “Women, men, migrant, old, young—they all can join unions, they can all be organized.”
Tang gave the example of Malaysia, where it is not legal for migrant workers to form unions. Yet domestic workers “take great risk to win their rights” and have now formed an organization and are the newest IDWF affiliate.
Farm workers in Meknes El Hajeb, Morocco, described how they improved their working conditions through collective bargaining, and domestic workers from across the region shared how the abuse they endured in employer households ended when they joined unions and became covered by contracts.
The bottom line, says Marie Constant, a domestic worker from Madagascar working in Lebanon: “Within a union one may fight together.”
Going Forward
Adoracion Salvador Bunag plans to share with other domestic workers the strategies she learned at the Solidarity Center Decent Work Forum. Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell
For forum participants, the conference served as a springboard for moving forward with strategies for carrying out campaigns to improve the rights of domestic workers and farm workers.
“This dialogue is not going to stop here,” says Saida Ouaid, CDT executive board member and coordinator for programs covering women and migration. “It will be further conveyed here through our institutions.”
“I have learned a lot from this forum and I will able to share it with my fellow domestic workers in Jordan,” says Adoracion Salvador Bunag, a domestic worker from the Philippines working in Morocco.
“As we move forward we will implement what we learned here,” says Hanan Laawina, a Morocco farm worker in Meknes El Hajeb.
“What is being talked about here is kind of stuff that is real and when I go back to work, I can speak from a position of strength when advocating for our rights,” she says.
Oct 5, 2017
When Mwahamisi Josiah Makori, a Kenyan mother of three who worked as a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia, first arrived at her new employer’s house, she was given only 20 minutes before she began work. After that, she began a three-month period which involved hard labor, brutal sleeping conditions, and no pay. For three months, Makori cleaned two houses, took care of children, and was regularly beaten by her employers. Makori, who told her story to the Solidarity Center, now lives in Kenya after returning home after never receiving pay for her work.
Mwahamisi Josiah Makori, a Kenyan mother of three, was abused by her Saudi employer, who never paid her for her work. Credit: Solidarity Center/Kate Conradt
The conditions Makori faced, and which millions of workers around the world endure, fall outside the realm of what is called “decent work.” While all jobs come with inherent value, decent work entails jobs that are safe, pay living wages, take care of workers, provide breaks, and empower women.
This Saturday marks the 10th anniversary of World Day for Decent Work, which this year is focused on living wages, and the importance of minimum wages in ensuring that all workers can afford a quality standard of living. Some 80 percent of people surveyed around the world say the minimum wage in their country is too low, according to the International Trade Union Congress (ITUC), which spearheads World Day for Decent Work.
Makori and millions of others are forced to migrate for work because the only jobs available are in the informal economy, where low and unsteady pay, unsafe working conditions and lack of sick leave or other benefits often mean they cannot support themselves or their families.
More than half of all workers in the world are part of the informal economy, the majority of whom are women. By enabling informal economy workers, migrant workers, women workers and others traditionally excluded from union membership to join together to bargain collectively and demand their rights under the law, the Solidarity Center works to empower workers to raise their voice for dignity on the job, justice in their communities and greater equality in the global economy. Together in unions and worker associations, workers have the power to create decent work for themselves and ensure the work they do comes with dignity and economic justice.
Solidarity Center Standing up for Decent Work around the World
KUDHEIHA connects with community members in Mombasa during an education campaign on migrant worker rights. Credit: Solidarity Center/Deddeh Tulay
Recently in Kenya, the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotel, Educational Institutions, Hospitals, and Allied Workers (KUDHEIHA), a Solidarity Center partner, made key progress in its struggle to strengthen the rights of workers who migrate from the country for work. Labor brokers often give workers false information about the wages and working conditions in other countries. A new proposal, crafted by Kenya’s Labor Ministry and KUDHEIHA, would require employers to provide workers with their contracts up front, so that there is no question of what workers should expect before they leave.
Elsewhere, Solidarity Center programs further advance rule of law and gender equality in unions and communities. In Iraq, for instance, union leader Sultan Mutlag Ahmed participated in a Solidarity Center labor law training and so was equipped to bring justice to construction workers by winning back their unpaid wages through a successful court case.
The Solidarity Center also is part of a global campaign to combat gender-based violence at work, one of the most tolerated abuses of workers’ rights. Together with the ITUC and global allies, the campaign seeks to build critical support for the adoption of an International Labor Organization convention on gender-based violence.
As unions around the world stand up for decent work October 7, you can support and follow the actions on Twitter with the hashtag #WDDW and #OurPayRise. Also check out the ITUC’s World Day for Decent Work to download logos and infographics.