New Photo Essay: Gaza Agricultural Worker Etaf

New Photo Essay: Gaza Agricultural Worker Etaf

While all work has value, not every job is a “good job.” Millions of workers around the world, especially those in the informal sector, cannot enjoy the benefits of their own hard work and often are denied safe working conditions, social protections like health insurance, professional security and union rights and freedom.

The Solidarity Center partners with unions and other allies to support workers seeking to achieve decent work and dignity on the job, together. In Palestine, the Solidarity Center supports activists fighting for labor law enforcement and sustainable jobs, to improve the lives of all working people.

A new Solidarity Center photo essay, ’Sometimes I Am Lucky to Get A Task for Three Days’: Etaf Awdi Hamdi Eqdeeh, offers a look into the life of a mother and agricultural worker Etaf Awdi Hamdi Eqdeeh who lives and works in Khuza’a, near Khan Younis, Gaza.

Now in her 60s, Etaf visits area farms daily to look for any kind of temporary job because she cannot find a permanent job—and she helps support her multigenerational family.

“Sometimes I am lucky to get a task for three days,” she says.

Palestine Workers Find Strength in their Union

Palestine Workers Find Strength in their Union

Trade unions in Palestine are among the most significant institutions of civil society not directly tied to any political party. As the primary voice for working families and the unemployed in Palestine, the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) plays a prominent role in backing the rule of law and developing coalitions among organizations seeking a more stable, just and prosperous Palestine.

The Solidarity Center works with PGFTU on its advocacy for sustainable job creation and labor law enforcement and its efforts to improve the lives of working people and create a more equitable society. The fight for introducing and enforcing a minimum wage in Palestine is an example of this struggle.

This Solidarity Center photo essay offers a look into the work lives of two PGFTU members, Khadeja Othman, a kindergarten teacher in Ramallah’s Bet Our Al Tahta village, and Abed Al Salam Qadah, a plumber who, like many Palestinians with jobs in Israel, must endure hours each day in dehumanizing lines to pass through the Qalqilya gate, one of hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank. For further information on Palestinian workers and working conditions, click here.

(All photos by Alaa Salih for the Solidarity Center.)

Palestine, kindergarten teacher, Solidarity Center

Khadeja Othman , 43, holds a bachelor’s degree from Al Yarmouk University in Jordan and teaches kindergarten in Ramallah’s Bet Our Al Tahta village.

Palestine, kindergarten teacher, Solidarity Center

As a PGFTU member, Khadeja Othman has participated in many training workshops and co-taught two educational sessions in her village.

Palestine, kindergarten teacher, Solidarity Center

Khadeja Othman loves her job but says the salary is $315 a month, less than the $381 per month Palestinian minimum wage. She says she understands the financial situation of the kindergarten sector and in particular the kindergarten where she works, which is managed by a charitable organization.

Palestine, kindergarten teacher, Solidarity Center

The mother of two sons, Khadeja Othman has taught kindergarten since 1998. “I feel happy to work with kids. They are like my children.”

Palestine, kindergarten teacher, Solidarity Center

Khadeja Othman met AFT and Education International representatives through her involvement in the PGFTU, which receives Solidarity Center support. “This gave me the opportunity to gain many new skills and new relationships.”

Palestine, unions, decent work, teacher, Solidarity Center

Through her union, the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions Workers Union and the Solidarity Center, kindergarten teacher Khadeja Othman says she has gained new skills in workshops, training courses and hands-on experience. Credit: Solidarity Center/Alaa T. Badarneh

Palestine, Israeli border crossing, Solidarity Center

Abed Al Salam Qadah, 49, Qahah is from Marda village near Qalqilya city in the northern West Bank and works as a plumber in Israel.

Palestine, Israeli border crossing, Solidarity Center

Each day, Abed Al salam Qahah, the father of eight children, must line up for hours at a checkpoint to cross back and forth into Israel.

Palestine, Israeli border crossing, Solidarity Center

Abed Al Salam Qadah is among thousands of Palestinians who wait in line for hours to cross the Israeli border for their jobs.

Palestine, Israeli border crossing, Solidarity Center

Workers try to be at the checkpoint at 1:30 a.m. and line up in rows until 4 a.m.

Palestine, Israeli border crossing, Solidarity Center

Abed Al Salam Qadah has worked in Israel as a plumber since 1991 and is a member of the PGFTU Qalqilya district union.

Palestine, Israeli border crossing, Solidarity Center

Palestinian workers say they must endure the time-consuming and dehumanizing checkpoint process because there are few jobs in Palestine. The Solidarity Center works with PGFTU to meet with workers at the border and talk with them about their labor rights.

Palestine, Israeli border crossing, Solidarity Center

As a PGFTU member, Abed Al Salam Qadah can take part in union trainings to better understand his labor rights in Israel and has access to a lawyer to defend those rights. The union also provides document translation from Hebrew to Arabic.

Palestine, Israeli border crossing, Solidarity Center

Says Abed Al Salam Qadah: “The union helps us to understand the Israeli labor law and defend our rights.”

Palestinian Union Federation Expands Role of Women

Palestinian Union Federation Expands Role of Women

More than 300 the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) members took part in the PGFTU Congress in Nablus late last month, where delegates voted to boost representation of women and reinforced the federation’s commitment to worker rights. They were joined by representatives from 16 international organizations, including the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the Solidarity Center and the International Labor Organization (ILO).

Delegates at PGFTU’s Fifth Congress voted to increase from 20 percent to 30 percent the representation of women across all PGFTU bodies over the next four years; agreed to enforce Palestine’s minimum wage law and work to make it a living wage; and reinforced the PGFTU’s stance in defending the freedom to form unions.

Also during the three-day conference, PGFTU General Council members elected Shaher Saad as secretary general and voted in 24 representatives of national general unions, including four women, to the executive committee, along with seven men and women unionists to the financial and administrative audit committee. All will serve four-year terms. The elections were observed by representations from the ILO, the Arab Labor Organization and U.S. and European trade unions and federations.

Delegates backed ongoing dialogue with allies as the PGFTU campaigns for fair labor laws that guarantee decent work for workers and a fair social security law for workers and their families. In ensuring that women make up 30 percent of the federation’s leadership, delegates seek to guarantee their input in designing labor policies and executing union resolutions and reinforced their commitment to promoting the role of Palestinian working women as a key force in the national and local markets.

Participants also emphasized the need to network with civil society organizations and legal groups that to work toward establishing a democratic and transparent civil society.

In his remarks, Saad said workers will achieve social justice and fairness through a strong and independent trade union movement that seeks to elevate workers’ voices and protect him from exploitation.

Celebrating Workers: 2015 Year in Photos

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 amazing women and men we partnered with in 2015, and showcase their efforts to improve their lives and livelihoods and tip the scales toward greater equality in their countries.

As Mervat Jumhawi, a former garment worker and union organizer working with the Solidarity Center in Jordan, described her own experience: “When I became member of the union, I became stronger.”

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May Day: Photos of Worker Actions Around the World

May Day: Photos of Worker Actions Around the World

Hundreds of thousands of workers and their unions around the world marked International Workers Day May 1. For many, the day provided a time to push for living wages and safe workplaces. Yet this year, governments in some countries like Bahrain and Swaziland banned May Day celebrations or threatened workers with retaliation if they turned out—and some brave workers defied these edicts to exercise their freedom to gather in public spaces.

Elsewhere, workers like those in Bangladesh who often are prevented from forming unions or exercising their fundamental worker rights, called for the freedom to join unions and correct workplace injustices.

Sumi Begum, 25, a Bangladeshi garment worker, says that she and other workers at her factory have not received salaries or overtime pay for the past two months, but they cannot raise the issue with the manager because they fear they would be terminated if they did so.

“Garment factories that have union are not facing these kinds of problems,” she says. “The condition of those garment industries is much better than ours.”
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