Sep 12, 2013
Tim Ryan, Solidarity Center Asia Region Director, sends us this report from the AFL-CIO quadrennial convention in Los Angeles.
In a dramatic demonstration of how deadly the global supply chain really is, Scott Nova, director of the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), opened a panel on worker rights in Bangladesh with this observation: “Of the four deadliest factory disasters in history, three of those four happened in the last 12 months.” He cited the Baldia factory fire in Pakistan, which killed 347 workers, the Tazreen Fashions fire, which killed 112 workers, and the Rana Plaza building collapse, in which more than 1,200 workers lost their lives. To find another industrial disaster of that proportion, you have to go back to the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York in 1911. This was a pretty shocking thought to me and underscored how the global garment supply chain is increasingly dangerous to workers and why they need to redouble their efforts protect their rights.
Nova gave his remarks at the panel discussion, Bangladesh Fire and Safety Accord: A New Standard in Global Framework Agreements? Some 30 participants attended the workshop, which presented a truly new approach to framework agreements and protecting worker rights. Ben Davis, international director of the United Steelworkers (USW) moderated the panel, which included Nova; Kalpona Akter, director of Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS); Owen Herrnstadt, international director of the International Association of Machinsts (IAM); and Garrett Strain, international campaign organizer for United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS).
Nova outlined the Accord on Building and Fire Safety, a new and binding agreement that 87 clothing brands have signed. The accord covers 1,800 factories in Bangladesh, mandates that both brands and the companies they source from fix building and fire hazards and ensures unions are a key part of this process.
“Workers’ justice starts for me with workers’ safety,” Akter said, and called the accord important for workers to provide activists the political space to organize and to interact with company managers to improve conditions. She also emphasized that although Bangladesh labor law is “decent” compared with some other countries, the law is not enforced. If the accord works, she said, “This could be a historical turning point.”
“Why are U.S. unions interested in the accord?” asked Owen Herrnstadt. “First, workers all over the world deserve safer workplaces,” he said. The IAM, an affiliate of the global union, IndustriALL, is bringing together workers from many industries, including the garment sector and is looking for “innovative tools to change corporate behavior.” Herrnstadt called the accord “one of the most significant breakthroughs,” one that is “radically different” and that needs to be emulated.
Strain discussed a delegation he led to Bangladesh with six USAS student activists to find ways to coordinate public campaigns in the United States with Bangladeshi labor union activists on the ground. In the coming weeks, USAS will encourage a Global Day of Action at the six-month anniversary of Rana Plaza on October 24. November 24 is the one-year anniversary since the Tazreen fire, and USAS is encouraging more actions on that day.
Most important, all the panelists encouraged the support of the democratic, independent unions in Bangladesh, which now have a chance to organize unions for the first time in the past 20 years.
Sep 10, 2013
Trade unionists from dozens of countries are taking part in the quadrennial AFL-CIO Convention in Los Angeles this week—and the Los Angeles Times has video highlights of two international union leaders.
Zahoor Awan, general secretary of the Pakistan Workers Federation, said he is representing the Pakistani union movement in solidarity with the U.S. labor movement. “We share the same … defense of workers and trade union rights.”
Also in the clip is Myrtle Witbooi, general secretary of the South African domestic workers union SADSAWU. Witbooi is chairwoman of the International Domestic Workers NetWork (IDWN), which received the George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award Sunday during the covention’s opening session.
“We want to say that domestic workers want respect, they want to be valued for what they are doing,” Witbooi told the Times. “Domestic workers want the same rights as other workers. We are workers like all other workers, so we demand the same respect as all other workers in the world.”
Check out the video.
Sep 9, 2013
At least 50 domestic workers from seven countries marched into the main hall at the AFL-CIO quadrennial convention in Los Angeles Sunday, singing their signature song, to accept the George Meany–Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka presented the annual AFL-CIO award to the International Domestic Workers’ Network (IDWN) for supporting local domestic worker movements, building bridges between unions and domestic worker organizations and providing a voice for domestic workers at the international level.
Myrtle Witbooi, general secretary of the South African domestic workers union SADSAWU, accepted the award on behalf of the world’s domestic workers. In 2011, the international coalition of domestic workers secured passage of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers (C. 189). Convention 189 for the first time recognizes that the 53 million workers who labor in households, often in isolation and at risk of exploitation and abuse, deserve full protection of labor laws. The award proved timely: On September 5, the convention officially went into effect, providing millions of domestic workers worldwide with fundamental labor protections.
Witbooi’s emotional speech, in which she chronicled her experiences, said the struggle is far from over. But at least she no longer has to tell the owner of houses where she worked, “Thank you,” for the wages she earned.
“They say, ‘but Myrtle, you are a member of the family. And I say, ‘if I were a member of the family, I’d be sitting at the table, eating your food and you’d be washing the dishes.”
The domestic workers’ struggle is far from over, she said. “We need a living wage and to be able to educate our children.”
Trumka promised the labor movement will continute to fight on behalf of domestic workers, who are some of the most marginalized and exploited workers in the world. They often toil alone in an environment exempt from many labor standards. They serve as professional caretakers for millions, providing health and happiness for others, yet they often live in precarious and vulnerable situations. Many domestic workers are mistreated by their employers who deny them proper pay and compensation for their work. Others are subject to enslavement and human trafficking, sent far from home to toil alone.
Before the domestic workers left the stage, hundreds of convention participants joined them in singing: “My mother was a kitchen girl, my father was a garden boy, that’s why I’m a unionist.”
Many Solidarity Center partners are also members of the IDWN, which formed in 2006 by a group of domestic workers’ unions together with support organizations.
Established in 1980, the Meany–Kirkland Human Rights Award recognizes outstanding examples of the international struggle for human rights through trade unions. Named after the first two presidents of the AFL-CIO, the award honors leaders and organizations who have overcome significant hurdles to fight for workers’ rights.
Sep 5, 2013
Beginning today, millions of domestic workers worldwide have basic labor rights, as the International Labor Organization (ILO) Domestic Workers Convention officially comes into force.
When it passed in June 2011, Convention 189 marked a major milestone, signaling the global community’s recognition that the 53 million workers who labor in households, often in isolation and at risk of exploitation and abuse, deserve full protection of labor laws. When ILO delegates in Geneva, Switzerland, passed the convention, domestic workers and their supporters from around the world unfurled a banner from the balcony of the grand United Nations Assembly Hall, while below, government delegations, workers and even some employers clapped and cheered. The historic action pointed to the recognition that domestic workers, 83 percent of whom are women, perform work—and that entails rights equal to all other wage earners.
One of the major forces behind the multiyear campaign for passage of the landmark standard is the International Domestic Workers NetWork (IDWN). On Sunday, the IDWN will receive the AFL-CIO George Meany-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award for supporting local domestic worker movements, building bridges between unions and domestic worker organizations and providing a voice for domestic workers at the international level. Many Solidarity Center partners are also IDWN members.
The award, which will be presented during the AFL-CIO’s quadrennial convention in Los Angeles, recognizes “the groundbreaking efforts of domestic workers worldwide to organize for greater awareness of and respect for their work, their historic success in the adoption of the ILO convention and their commitment to support, expand and build the global labor movement.” (Read the full AFL-CIO statement.)
In countries like the Dominican Republic, passage of Convention 189 energized domestic workers and their allies, who over the years have leafleted, held meetings and reached out to the public in multiple campaigns, seeking their rights as workers. They now are pushing hard for the government to ratify it. (For details on their campaign, download the Solidarity Center report, “Domestic Workers: Winning Recognition and Protection.”)
And in countries, such as South Africa, that have ratified the convention, domestic workers like Gladys Mnyengeza, who holds several part-time positions providing critical household support for families in Cape Town, will now be fully covered by its protections. Some of the convention’s protections include the right of domestic workers to a minimum wage in countries where such a wage exists; access to social insurance, including for maternity leave; and one day off per week.
After the ILO passed Convention 189, two ILO member states needed to ratify it for it to come into force. Uruguay became the first nation to do so, followed by the Philippines. Six other countries (Bolivia, Italy, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Paraguay and South Africa) have ratified the convention.
According to the ILO, several others have initiated the ratification process, including Costa Rica and Germany.
Aug 26, 2013
When the Rana Plaza building collapsed in April, killing more than 1,200 Bangladesh garment workers, the disaster also injured thousands more workers, in many instances devastating their ability to support their families and plunging them into dire poverty.
Nasima was among the injured who survived the collapse of the multistory building. She suffers from severe wrist pain and as a result, is unable to work. She received no compensation for her injuries from the government, or from the multinational brands whose garments she sewed or from the factory owner—and now cannot even pay the rent or school fees. “I have three children and my children can’t go to school now,” she says.
Nasima was among several workers who met with Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) recently at the Solidarity Center’s office in Dhaka, the Bangladesh capital. Joined by Dan Mozena, U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh, Levin held three meetings with workers and union leaders to hear firsthand from survivors of the Rana Plaza and Tazreen factory disasters and to learn the obstacles garment workers face when seeking to form unions to improve the safety of their workplaces.
One plant-level union leader told Levin that factory managers prohibit him from talking with his co-workers. He was among 21 factory union leaders and seven union federation leaders to join the discussion.
Workers at another garment factory successfully formed a union despite managers’ attempts to convince them they did not need one. Julekha, vice president of Essex Ltd. Workers Union, told the congressman, “Now we know our rights. We are not afraid. They can’t harass us whenever they want. And we got a training and booklet on labor law from the federation leaders.” Julekha said workers now are waiting to hear back on demands they made to a management committee.
The United States in June suspended preferential trade benefits for Bangladesh because of chronic and severe labor rights violations. Because the benefits are suspended and not terminated, Bangladesh has the opportunity to again qualify for the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) by improving worker rights, laws and practices. A key measure of that program will be whether newly registered unions will be allowed to represent worker interests.
Since the suspension of benefits, the Bangladesh government has reinstated a garment worker rights group whose registration it had revoked in 2010, and media reports indicate the government dropped charges against two garment worker activists. But union leaders told Levin and Mozena they worried that the country’s new labor law, passed last month, is a step backwards for worker rights.
Levin expressed concern that garment workers are still facing threats when they seek to form unions and said that workers’ dignity and safety must be ensured. Mozena told the group that he believes “workers have the complete right to form trade unions. On behalf of my government, I am giving my commitment to you that I will do everything for you.”
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