On the seven-year anniversary of a deadly Bangladesh factory fire that killed 112 mostly young, female garment workers and injured more than 200 others, progress made by workers to improve their workplaces is threatened by the country’s crackdown on their right to organize.
Fire and building safety programs implemented by Bangladesh trade unions in partnership with the Solidarity Center since 2012 have trained more than 7,000 garment worker union leaders, safety committee members and rank-and-file members to identify, report and advocate for the remediation of fire and building safety hazards. The program also certified more than 400 workers as master health and safety trainers.
“[Workers] know to call a mechanic if there is a short circuit in the machine; they also notify if there are wires lying around on the floor,” says sewing machine operator and Solidarity Center safety trainer Mosammat Moushumi Akter of the Rumana Fashion Limited Workers Union in Gazipur. “I have learned these and also taught my co-workers,” she said.
Building worker power has paid measurable safety dividends: In 29 factories where garment workers organized trade unions and became empowered to negotiate with employers, workers secured collective bargaining agreements that contain legally binding safety and health provisions holding responsible parties accountable for preventing and addressing workplace safety violations.
“Faulty wiring that could easily spark a deadly fire is getting repaired; the paths to emergency exits are being cleared; and dehydrated workers are gaining access to clean drinking water,” said Solidarity Center Asia Regional Programs Director Timothy Ryan.
Where workers and management have collaborated on safety and where workers are empowered to raise safety issues with less fear of retaliation, progress has been made. More than 85 percent of life-threatening safety issues raised by workers trained under Solidarity Center’s program funded by the U.S. Department of Labor were remediated by management during the past two years.
Attacks on garment union leaders and workers protesting poverty wages in 2018 and 2019 also have had a chilling effect on organizing. From December 2018 to March 2019, the worst phase of the crackdown on worker rights, union application rates fell by 75 percent in comparison with the same period in 2018.
Without collective power to hold employers accountable for maintaining safety gains, worker rights advocates fear that backsliding is inevitable.
“Many people are concerned that there may be another Tazreen and Rana Plaza tragedy,” says Rakibul Hasan, Solidarity Center program officer in Dhaka. “Without the protection of the union and a way to speak out without fear of retaliation, workers are still in danger.”
Four million garment workers, mostly women, toil in 3,000 factories across Bangladesh, making the country’s $25 billion garment industry the world’s second largest, after China. Wages are the lowest among major garment-manufacturing nations in the region, while the cost of living in Dhaka is equivalent to that of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Luxembourg and Montreal. Bangladesh’s ready-made garment industry accounts for 81 percent of the country’s total export earnings and is the country’s biggest export earner.
The international human rights community is condemning the murder on Saturday of Jorge Alberto Acosta, executive member of the Workers’ Union of the Tela Railroad Company (SITRATERCO) and president of the union’s Savings and Credit Cooperative section.
Acosta’s murder comes just three weeks after the kidnapping and torture of Jaime Rodríguez, former president of the Union of Middle School Teachers (COPEMH).
The assassination follows more than a year of death threats that Acosta documented with the Anti-Union Violence Network in Honduras. According the Network, Acosta said he was informed by the Honduras’ National Anti-Extortion Force (FNA) on April 14, 2018, that three people had set up an operation near his house to plan his execution. Previously, FNA informed him of the capture of an alleged gang member who confessed there was a plan to kill him.
In May 2018, the Honduran state issued protective measures for Acosta due to the risks he faced for his human rights activity. Physical assaults, death threats, surveillance, attacks and burglaries against other union officers also have been documented and reported.
During 2018, the SITRATERCO Executive Committee sought out the Honduran government’s relevant law enforcement and human rights agencies to denounce a series of systematic acts of anti-union violence directly related to their work.
‘The Government Must Protect Threatened Union Leaders’
Following Acosta’s murder, the Coordinating Body of Latin American Agricultural unions (COLSIBA) echoed calls by Honduran unions that the state provide real, robust protection to Acosta’s family and SITRATERCO leadership and seriously undertake the protection of all threatened unionists currently authorized protective measures.
In a statement, four members of the U.S. Congress condemned the murder and said the Honduran government must thoroughly investigate and prosecute the assassination.
“The labor movement of Honduras is in more danger than ever. Yet the Honduran government fails to provide the legally mandated protection systems, does not investigate or prosecute those who threaten or kill union activists, and utterly fails to enforce its own labor laws,” the lawmakers said in the statement. “As the AFL-CIO and Honduran unions have documented, the government of Honduras has failed to comply with its legally mandated obligations under the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) to prevent anti-union violence, among other rampant violations.”
The agricultural worker federation FESTAGRO and its affiliated unions joined the call to demand justice for Acosta, #JusticiaparaJorge. The agricultural unions, whose members have been threatened, attacked and murdered in recent years for their efforts to seek basic rights on the job, urged the government to protect threatened rights activists.
“We demand immediate protection of the leaders from various unions who fight to improve the living conditions of the Honduran population and mainly in the agricultural sector, where violence is more marked and continuous. According to the report of the Network Against Anti-union Violence, more than 70 percent of attacks occur in this sector,” FESTAGRO, a longtime Solidarity Center partner, said in a statement.
In August, 55 members of Congress sent a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative and the Acting Secretary of Labor citing ongoing labor and human rights violations, including anti-union violence and threats at Honduran plantations as repeated violations of the CAFTA labor chapter. For example, workers’ efforts to form unions affiliated to FESTAGRO have been violently repressed. SITRATERCO, the union that founded the Honduran labor movement, is also a founding member of the FESTAGRO federation.
In 2012, the AFL-CIO and 26 Honduran unions and civil society organizations filed a complaint under CAFTA’s labor chapter. The complaint, filed with the Labor Department’s Office of Trade and Labor Affairs, alleges the Honduran government failed to enforce worker rights under its labor laws. In a February 2015 report, and again in October 2018, the U.S. Trade and Labor Affairs office documented that the Honduran government demonstrated no progress on emblematic cases or systematic rights violations.
“There is a human rights crisis around the world—that’s why we are intensifying our work in recognizing the role labor plays in holding government’s accountable and promoting dignity and equality at work,” said Sandra Coliver from the Open Society Foundation, opening the second day of the International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW) Conference in Mexico City.
Labor is key to addressing the global crisis in human rights—Sandra Coliver, OSF. Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell
Coliver moderated a panel plenary with representatives from the American Bar Association, the Business and Human Rights Resource Center (BHRRC), Human Rights Watch and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) who discussed how their efforts as independent monitors and lawyers provide a key tool for worker rights advocates around the world.
More than 100 worker rights lawyers from around the world are discussing strategies to facilitate innovative litigation, help spread the adoption of pro-worker legislation and defeat anti-worker laws at the first ILAW conference. Participants yesterday discussed identified common challenges, share successes, plan strategic partnerships and more.
Key Allies: Independent Legal & Human Rights Groups
Carlos Lopez says ICJ offers an international lens on human rights abuses. Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell
In Zimbabwe, where ongoing protests against the nation’s economic meltdown have been met with death threats and a sustained government crackdown on union leaders and other civil society members, the ICJ this year documented 800 human rights violations, murders and hundreds of arrests and detentions, many included trade unionists.
ICJ created an emergency fund to provide protection for human rights violations in Zimbabwe, and relocated to safe places people whose houses were targeted and other assistance, said Carlos Lopez at ICJ.
The organization’s fact-finding mission with South African lawyers and others resulted in magistrate courts, made presentations before authorities and prepared a report—and in doing so, “signaled a strong message to labor lawyers activists that there is an international eye on what’s happening—solidarity,” he said.
BHRRC investigates up to 100 worker right violations a year, says Bobbi Sta. Maria. Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell
At BHRRC, the organization investigates up to 500 allegations of worker rights and human rights abuses each year and seeks to get companies to respond to the allegations, said Bobbie Sta. Maria.
“We create a public record of allegations against companies, work with unions, using information from the media and push the information out to investors, governments, non-governmental organizations, academics, companies,” and more, she said.
The ABA’s involvement in addressing worker rights and human rights abuses results in “fewer violations and shorter periods of confinement and creates documentation” that the ABA takes to brands to engage local suppliers, said Brittany Benowitz at the ABA.
“Having a bar association as outside observer helps in the larger effort” of achieving worker rights, she said.
ILAW Going Forward
During regional breakouts—Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America—participants built on discussions over the past day and a half to map out recommendations for ILAW and its members to further craft a network that achieves its founding goals: a global hub for worker rights lawyers to facilitate innovative litigation, help spread the adoption of pro-worker legislation and defeat anti-worker laws.
Common themes emerged: ILAW members said the network should go deeper in labor law reform and legislation and policy changes, engage in more public statements and advocacy and include migrant worker rights throughout all its advocacy.
The ILAW network should provide technical assistance and support so members can “share information on the migrant worker recruitment system and migration policies to enable unions and other stakeholders in the destination country to assist migrant workers,” said Sabnam Awal from the People’s Forum on Human Rights in Nepal.
ILAW Conference participants took part in regional breakouts to map next steps. Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell
Members also frequently urged ILAW to go further in helping them address gender equality issues and network around strategies to move ratification of a new global treaty ending gender-based violence at work (International Labor Organization/ILO Convention 190).
ILAW should explore “how to encourage unions to provide an equal and level playing ground free from discrimination for both men and women,” said Kaizala Tembo, from the Labor Institute of Zambia.
Many of the resources members seek are available at the ILAW website, said ILAW Board Chair Jeff Vogt, who reviewed its features in an afternoon plenary in which members shared their priorities for ILAW. The ILAW website is available in seven languages and includes a library of resources, such as legal cases submitted by members for inclusion. ILAW members may join any of the dozens of discussion groups which are organized thematically, such as migrant worker discussion group and regionally.
Horacio Meguira led a discussion on worker rights and the ILO. Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell
Vogt, Solidarity Center Rule of Law director, also noted that an urgent action feature will shortly be live that will enable members to react quickly with an online petition.
In the final conference plenary, Horacio Meguira from the Argentina Independent Workers union, shared a history of the ILO and engaged participants in a discussion of how worker rights lawyers can address the recent shift in the organization—comprised of representatives of workers, employers and governments—toward favoring corporate and state policies that endanger worker rights.
The ability of workers to freely form unions is such a fundamental human right that the United Nations (UN) holds countries accountable for violating those rights, according to Lance Compa, senior lecturer in labor law at Cornell University.
“Even countries that have not ratified ILO 87”—the International Labor Organization standard covering freedom of association—“are subject to it because it’s a basic right under the UN charter,” he said.
Lance Compa, Dayhe Park, Benson Upah and Jeff Vogt open the afternoon session on freedom of association. Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell
Compa opened the afternoon panel plenary on freedom of association at the International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW) conference in Mexico City, where worker rights lawyers are discussing strategies to facilitate innovative litigation, help spread the adoption of pro-worker legislation and defeat anti-worker laws. The two-day conference in Mexico City brings together more than 100 worker rights lawyers from around the world.
Compa pointed out that the concept of freedom of association is much broader than the ability to form unions, and cited examples of workers in the United States who are exercising those rights through worker associations comprised primarily of migrant workers, walkouts at nonunionized corporations like Google, and the transnational fast food worker fight for better wages.
Benson Upah at the Nigeria Labor Congress and Dayhe Park from the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions joined Compa in leading a wide-ranging discussion with participants who shared concerns about the lack of judicial knowledge of ILO standards on labor rights and the need to educate workers about their rights.
“Unions need to embark on internal governance structural reforms, such as transparency,” Upah said. He also suggested the ILO should assist labor rights advocates in bringing companies to justice for committing offenses in one country and then moving operations to another so they will not face legal action.”
Upah also stressed another key tool to achieve worker justice: “the importance of mass action.”
Building on Success
Maureen Kalume chadi from KUDHEIHA shares discussions on migrant worker rights. Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell
“Capital can move freely, but where does it move?” Where it can pay workers the least, said Maureen Kalume chadi from the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (KUDHEIHA), sharing insights from an earlier roundtable discussion on achieving justice for migrant workers. The roundtable was among six that participants reported on during another afternoon plenary, where they also suggested strategic next steps for ILAW to take in the coming year.
Discussing how migrant workers are excluded from national labor laws and so denied access to justice, and how unscrupulous labor recruitment agencies take advantage of migrant workers, the group also shared success stories from India and Thailand. In Thailand, for instance, worker rights attorneys assisted migrant farm workers from Myanmar in obtaining justice after they were imprisoned for reporting abuses.
Participants in the employment discrimination roundtable shared their discussions on the intersectional concept of discrimination and how religion, ethnicity and other factors are connected with gender discrimination, points that show “the need to bolster our expertise on it, and recognize it from the outset,” said Solidarity Center Senior Gender Specialist Robin Runge.
“Isolating forms of discrimination is not effective,” she said.
The roundtable on discrimination also discussed the extent to which gender inequality is a widespread global issue, and how equal pay is not limited to unequal paychecks between women and men—for example, women may be blocked from securing higher paying jobs.
With the June passage of ILO 190 on ending violence in the workplace and the need for governments to ratify the standard, the group recommended an ILAW forum to enable members to share strategies on its implementation in their countries.
Participants in the “fissured employment relationship” roundtable shared their conversations on the need for a broad definition of worker and employer to address the growing number of “platform” companies like Uber claiming they are not employers and asking for exemptions from labor laws that protect workers.
Participants also reported on their roundtable discussions on the global supply chain, occupational safety and health and the informal economy.
Emphasis on Democracy
Arturo Alcade discussed the strategies that led to Mexico’s new labor law reform. Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell
By filing complaints with the ILO on labor law violations that put worker rights abuses under international scrutiny and by working across borders with unions to hold corporations like NIKE accountable for worker rights violations, Alcalde says labor law reform “is now becoming institutionalized” in Mexico.
Follow Solidarity Center on Twitter and Facebook for updates throughout the conference.
From Chile to Zimbabwe, the past year has been one of protest and struggle as unions, workers and citizens are standing up against economies that do not work for working people, said Solidarity Rule of Law Director Jeff Vogt, opening the first International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW) Conference.
“We see opportunities now to deepen democracy”—Jeff Vogt. Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell
“We see the opportunities now to deepen democracy,” said Vogt, ILAW Board Chair. “We are making progress as unions and as lawyers for unions. That is what I want us to remember and share.”
More than 100 worker rights lawyers from around the world are in Mexico City for the two-day conference to share successes and seek strategies for overcoming obstacles to achieving worker justice on the job. Formed last year, ILAW has nearly 400 members from 50 countries.
Describing Mexico’s labor law reforms as “the most important in the last 100 years,” Mexico Labor Secretary Luisa Alcalde detailed during the opening plenary how the new law will reform the employer protection contracts that shut out workers’ voice in their unions. The contracts, which now comprise 80 percent to 85 percent of all workplace contracts, will undergo a process in which workers are asked to vote on whether the contracts represent them. Going forward, the law stipulates all new agreements are fully understood and accepted by union members.
Ultimately, Alcalde said, Mexico’s new labor law does not “just change articles and sections but relies on change of culture, a change of relationship between employers and unions” that emphasizes democratic process and accountability.
“Labor rights are human rights”—Nashieli Ramirez Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell
Also speaking at the plenary, Nasshieli Ramírez, president of the Human Rights Commission of Mexico City, emphasized that Mexico’s labor law reforms are “sending out a clear signal against impunity as far as labor rights are involved.”
The ILAW Network is important because labor rights issues cross borders and require coordination among worker rights lawyers to develop strategies, Ramírez said.
“Only by looking at structural conditions that cause inequality of labor rights” among the disabled, indigenous and other marginalized workers “that’s when we need to speak about progressive right of labor rights. Labor rights are human rights.”
Tools for Worker Rights
Libakis Matlho shares details on a new contract in Lesotho improving rights to violence free workplace for 10,000 garment workers. Credit: Solidarity Center/Tula Connell
Libakiso Matlho, national director for the Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust (WLSA)-Lesotho, opened the first panel plenary by describing a new groundbreaking agreement to end sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence at work in five Lesotho garment factories.
Lesotho-based unions, WSLA and the Federation of Women Lawyers in Lesotho (FIDA), major fashion brands and international worker rights organizations, including the Solidarity Center, negotiated with the factory owner, Nien Hsing Textiles, to mandate education and awareness trainings for all employees and managers, an independent reporting and monitoring system and remedies for abusive behavior.
In Mexico, where one in 10 migrant workers pay labor recruiters for jobs that don’t exist and many are charged exploitative fees, a new digital platform enables migrant workers to review labor recruiters, increasing transparency and creating a digital community of workers to achieve justice, said Jimena Monjaras from Centro de los Derechos del Migrante.
The platform can be transferred to other countries and will serve to “correct the imbalance of power that exists now between employers and employees,” she said.
The morning session ended with a series of roundtables covering global supply chains, employment discrimination, fissured employment relationships, migrant worker rights, the informal economy and occupational safety and health.
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Following Acosta’s murder, the Coordinating Body of Latin American Agricultural unions (COLSIBA) echoed calls by Honduran unions that 
During regional breakouts—Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America—participants built on discussions over the past day and a half to map out recommendations for ILAW and its members to further craft a network that achieves 
