Oct 7, 2024
World Cotton Day – October 9, 2024: As ubiquitous as cotton is in our everyday lives, the workers who produce and harvest this foundational crop are often invisible. This was long the case in Uzbekistan, where for decades the government forcibly mobilized millions of people, sometimes including children, to harvest cotton for state-owned enterprises. A long-running global advocacy campaign led by the Cotton Campaign, of which Solidarity Center was a founding member, helped push the government to implement reforms that brought that system to an end in 2021.
Ending state-organized forced labor was a major accomplishment, but establishing just and equitable working conditions in the cotton sector is a longer journey. With support from the U.S. Department of Labor, the Solidarity Center is working to put in place building blocks that will allow workers to ensure their rights are protected. The Solidarity Center signed an agreement with the Ministry of Employment and Poverty Reduction of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the project’s co-implementing partner, the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), in December 2022 to begin project work. As the 2023 harvest season gets underway, Solidarity Center and CIPE are working closely with stakeholders in government, civil society and business to work from the field up and from oversight authorities down to build knowledge within the cotton sector about fundamental rights and strengthen mechanisms to ensure those rights are secured.
For the 2023 harvest, this includes:
- In collaboration with the ministry’s labor inspection and legal team, the Solidarity Center and CIPE have prepared and printed more than 10,000 leaflets for distribution to cotton pickers during the ongoing harvest season. These leaflets provide cotton pickers with accessible and comprehensive information about their fundamental rights as seasonal workers under Uzbekistan’s Labor Code. The content covers essential worker protections and includes critical contact information, such as the Labor Inspection hotline and a project-run Telegram channel, where workers can anonymously report violations and seek free legal consultation. The leaflets have been also distributed to groups working in different regions across Uzbekistan to maximize outreach. This initiative plays a crucial role in raising awareness among seasonal workers, ensuring they are informed of their rights and the enforcement mechanisms available to them if their rights are violated. Providing clear and accessible information about legal protections and enforcement channels will be essential to empowering cotton workers to assert their rights, and increased awareness is critical to improving compliance with international labor standards, which is the route to creating a more sustainable and transparent cotton sector.
- The Solidarity Center, in partnership with the Tashkent Mediation Center and the State Labor Inspectorate, successfully conducted a two-day training session October 2–3 in Tashkent aimed at enhancing the capacity of mediators to resolve individual labor disputes. The training, facilitated by a regional expert, introduced participants to mediation as an alternative mechanism for labor dispute resolution. The comprehensive curriculum, a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical exercises, equipped 10 mediators from the Tashkent Mediation Center and Labor Inspection staff with the skills to mediate and effectively resolve individual labor disputes. The head of the Labor Inspectorate emphasized the importance of continued collaboration and capacity building as critical to providing workers in the cotton sector with an effective remedy for labor rights violations.
These harvest-period activities supplement an ongoing rights awareness and education program the Solidarity Center and CIPE are implementing with workers and employers in the cotton sector. A core priority of that program in the coming year will be to ensure that all workers in the cotton sector have a written employment contract with clear, enforceable conditions of work. Employment contracts are vital to healthy labor relations that, unfortunately, are absent in many agricultural supply chains.
Recent reforms in Uzbekistan requiring labor contracts for all workers in cotton production have the potential to help the country distinguish itself as a high-road option for textile sourcing, if those reforms can be implemented and enforced. Developing workplace-level reporting and monitoring systems for workers to verify their rights are being respected, and to seek remedy if they are not, will be an important next step to positioning Uzbekistan as a leader in developing sustainable and just textile supply chains.
Funding is provided by the United States Department of Labor under cooperative agreement number IL-38908-22-75-K, through a sub-award from the Solidarity Center. 100% of the total costs of the project or program is financed with federal funds, for a total of $1,018,814. This material does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the United States Department of Labor, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the United States Government.
Mar 15, 2024
Philippine trade union leaders are calling for an across-the-board daily minimum wage increase in the private sector to alleviate the economic burden workers currently face.
House Bill No. 7871 calls for a wage hike of 150 PHP (approximately 3 US dollars). Amid high inflation, poor job quality and a lack of new and decent jobs, supporters argue that immediately passing and enacting the wage increase is critical to support workers’ economic recovery.
During a press conference in Quezon City on Thursday, Benjamin Alvero, chief policy officer of the Center of United and Progressive Workers (SENTRO) said, “This wage hike is not just a matter of economic development but also of justice. The wage hike that we currently have at the regional level is just to catch up with inflation, and that is not enough.”
“There is an urgency to pass this legislated wage hike as the first step in the right direction towards addressing the disparity between the family living wage standard and current minimum wage rates,” Philippine Labor representatives said in a joint statement.
Last month, the Philippine Senate approved a minimum wage increase–the first Congress-legislated wage hike since 1989—of 100 PHP (roughly 2 US dollars).
Sep 2, 2022
A new Labor Center in Mexico will advise workers about their rights and how to mobilize and organize unions and collectively bargain. The Labor Center, at the Autonomous University of Querétaro in central Mexico, is supported by the Solidarity Center and the UCLA Labor Center.
“The aim is to strengthen and promote the full recognition of labor rights, freedom of association and organization, and the democratic participation of workers through research, linkage and accompaniment,” said Labor Center Director Dr. Javier Salinas García. Salinas spoke at a recent Solidarity Center event in Mexico to announce the opening.
The Labor Center comes three years after Mexico’s government announced a series of comprehensive labor reforms to establish a democratic unionization process, address corruption in the labor adjudication system and eradicate employer protection (“charro”) unions prevalent in the country.
The Labor Center is “a way to respond to the needs of the situation,” said Beatriz García, Solidarity Center Mexico deputy program director.
“I think we all agree that Mexico is going through a historic moment. The labor reform responds to the demands that have been the objectives of the struggle of many workers for years, for decades, and reflects some positive practices of the independent unions,” she said.
The event featured a panel of independent union members and leaders who discussed the future of the labor movement in Mexico in the wake of historic labor law reforms.
Panelists explored the role that democratic and independent trade unions in promoting labor reform implementation in Mexico three years after the 2019 Labor Reform and negotiations of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (UMSCA/T-MEC).
Speakers shared how they are using the tools of labor reform to organize on their worksites.
“We are the delegates, and we call our colleagues to share information about the Union League,” said Sonia Cristina García Bernal. “We have helped colleagues who were told they were going to be fired without severance pay. We have been able to get them severance pay. We have been able to get them rehired.”
“After these three years, the tool that we use the most is fast response mechanisms,” said Imelda Guadalupe Jiménez Méndez. “This has been a very important tool.”
In addition to Beatriz García, speakers included: Imelda Guadalupe Jiménez Méndez, Secretary for Political Affairs, the Miners Union (Los Mineros); Julieta Mónica Morales, General Secretary, Mexican Workers’ Union League (Liga Obrera Mexicana); Rita Guadalupe Lozano Tristán, Mexican Workers’ Union League (Liga Obrera Mexicana); Alejandra Morales, General Secretary, Independent Union of National Workers in the Automotive Industry; and Sonia Cristina García Bernal, Special Delegate, Mexican Workers’ Union League (Liga Obrera Mexicana).
Jun 1, 2022
A powerful new report shows that collective bargaining changes work and workers’ lives for the better. According to the report, workers in Honduras with collective bargaining agreements are less likely to feel compelled to migrate or to face verbal abuse, and they earn more than workers without collective bargaining agreements. The Solidarity Center-supported report, “Bargaining for Decent Work and Beyond: Transforming Work and Lives Through Collective Bargaining Agreements in the Honduran Maquila Sector,” was published by the Center for Global Workers’ Rights.
“Collective bargaining ultimately is about transforming lives,” said Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau, who moderated a panel discussion launching the report. “Not only do better wages and working conditions result from collective bargaining, but workers report dignity and respect on the job for the first time through collective bargaining and unions.”
Report author Mark Anner, director of Pennsylvania State University Center for Global Workers’ Rights, highlighted some key findings of the report. He said:
- Workers covered by a collective bargaining agreement are 25.3 percent less likely to feel compelled to migrate than workers without a collective bargaining agreement.
- Honduran garment workers with a collective bargaining agreement are 67 percent more likely to always have the choice to work overtime or not.
- Workers not covered by a collective bargaining agreement are 20.3 percent more likely to face verbal abuse.
- Female workers without a collective bargaining agreement are 10.7 percent more likely to face sexual harassment on the job.
- Workers with collective bargaining agreements earn 7 percent more than workers without collective bargaining agreements.
“Workers experience tangible and intangible benefits from having collective bargaining agreements,” Anner said. He quoted some workers as saying, “We are listened to now” and “Management shows us respect as workers.”
The report documents the expansion of collective bargaining agreements in the maquila sector, following a 2009 binding agreement between workers and a garment manufacturer. As of last year, 50,625 workers, mostly in the garment industry, were covered by 21 collective bargaining agreements in the Honduran export assembly sector.
Bader-Blau emphasized that the report shows the importance of worker-driven research, as suggested by the Solidary Center. “Unions lead and show outcomes to the rest of the world through the power of their own stories,” she said.
Union leaders like Eva Argueta, a leader in organizing tens of thousands of garment workers in Honduras, led the process of connecting with workers to help them share their work experiences.
Speaking on the panel, Argueta, representative for the General Workers Central (CGT, Honduras) and Maquila Organizing Project coordinator, described the process. “The person responding is much more likely to trust someone that they know who is doing the survey,” she said. “It can be a delicate thing because of the fear the boss might find out.”
Worker-leaders interviewed a total of 387 workers with and without collective bargaining agreements.
Other panelists included Joel López, general secretary of the Independent Federation of Workers of Honduras (FITH), Tara Mathur, field director for the Americas at the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), and María Elena Sabillón, Solidarity Center senior coordinator in Honduras.
As Sabillón shared in her remarks, “Collective bargaining agreements allow for real progress in both labor and human rights. CBAs today go beyond economic clauses. Unions are winning clauses on equality, combating violence and harassment in the world of work and respecting the dignity of each person. These CBAs are validating a broader rights-based approach.”
Feb 3, 2022
The new, independent union, Sindicato Independiente Nacional de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de la Industria Automotriz (SINTTIA), won the right to represent more than 6,000 workers at a truck plant in Silao, Mexico, in a closely watched election. SINTTIA won the election by a wide margin, defeating the entrenched CTM labor group that had held the contract at the plant for 25 years, and two other groups with ties to CTM.
SINTTIA won with 4,192 votes out of 5,389 valid ballots, in an election with 90 percent turnout. The three CTM unions combined won just over a thousand votes.
The victory happened despite attempts to buy votes and intimidate workers, and threats of violence leveled against union leaders and activists. One of those threatened was SINTTIA General Secretary María Alejandra Morales Reynoso. She spoke about the victory at a press conference.
SINTTIA General Secretary Maria Alejandra Morales Reynoso / Credit: Solidarity Center
“Today is a day in history for Mexican workers,” says Morales Reynoso. ” And we have just begun.”
SINTTIA’s victory could signify the beginning of the end of CTM’s decades-long hold on power. The labor group derived its strength from secret contracts, intimidation of workers and close relationships with Mexico’s previous ruling party and employers, whom they appeased by keeping wages low.
The election is a significant test of the impact of trade reforms, which expand worker rights and establish union votes by secret ballot to validate labor contracts. Mexico’s government estimates that prior to reforms, about 80 percent of union contracts were signed without workers’ knowledge, and helped suppress wages and give employers more control over workers.
At this one truck plant this week, workers were able to overcome corruption and threats of violence to vote out the sham union. Thousands of workers now have a chance at collective bargaining, raising wages and improving working conditions, but much work remains to ensure free and fair elections at thousands of workplaces for millions of Mexican workers.
