Solidarity Center - Author: Tula Connell

Solidarity Center Video Wins Telly Award!

Mar 31, 2017

A Solidarity Center video that shows how unions are key to reversing the dynamic that fuels low wages and unsafe workplaces in the global supply chain won the top award in the Social Responsibility category of the 2017 Telly Awards. The Telly Awards honor the best in TV and cable, digital and streaming, and non-broadcast productions.

Produced by Next Day Animations, the short “white board” video explains that by using collective power to counter the interconnected effects of global supply chains, government inaction, poverty and economic inequality, workers “improve their workplaces, their wages, their families’ living conditions—and they use that power to improve their communities and build democracy.”

In a statement, Next Day Animations says “we are thrilled by this honor and grateful for our awesome partner organizations who helped make it happen.”

Cambodia Draft Minimum Wage Law: Guts Basic Freedoms

Mar 29, 2017

Cambodia’s draft minimum wage law would prohibit unions and other civil-society organizations from contesting the country’s minimum wage and would go so far as to restrict their ability to even conduct research to craft minimum wage options, according to a legal analysis by the Solidarity Center and its partners.

“As it stands, the draft could potentially criminalize all forms of protest in relation to the minimum wage, which has been the motivation for some of the biggest demonstrations in recent memory,” says Chak Sopheap, executive director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), which analyzed the draft.

“It is an affront to the constitutionally protected fundamental freedoms of expression, association and assembly, and must not proceed,” he says. (The analysis is available in English and Khmer.)

The law also would exclude many categories of workers, including domestic workers, civil servants, some transportation workers and workers in the informal economy.

Draft Law Blocks Worker & Union Input

“The government has routinely criminalized legitimate trade union conduct, in violation of international human rights law. The vague prohibition of ‘illegal acts’ in regard to pressuring the government over the minimum wage would seriously undermine the legitimate work of labor activists,” explains Jeff Vogt, legal director of the Solidarity Center’s rule of law department.

The analysis also notes that the draft law’s processes for wage-setting do not guarantee union participation and give significant discretion to the labor minister to set minimum wages based on employment sector and geographic region, which threatens “to undercut the objectives and spirit of the law.”

Minimum Wage for Garment Workers Not a Living Wage

In recent years, tens of thousands of garment workers across Cambodia, most of them women, waged a series of mass protests demanding a living wage.

A 2015 study of garment workers and their expenditures, conducted by labor rights groups, including the Solidarity Center, indicated that garment workers earned far less than they need to cover expenses. Although the minimum wage for garment and footwear workers rose this year to $153 per month, up from $140, some union representatives says it still falls far short of a fair living wage.

The analysis recommends amendments and additions to the draft law that would bring it in line with international human rights law and constitutional human rights guarantees. The Solidarity Center, CCHR and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) compared the draft law with international standards and best practices, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and International Labor Organization conventions.

Online Tribute to Earl Brown

Mar 28, 2017

A moving online tribute to Earl V. Brown, Jr., includes remembrances from family, friends and colleagues whose lives Brown touched around the world and features a video of the March 25 memorial service commemorating Brown’s deep dedication to achieving worker justice.

Brown, Solidarity Center labor and employment law counsel, was a passionate civil-rights champion, tireless defender of workers and brilliant intellect who passed away in February following a brief illness.

A poem on the memorial site by Langston Hughes, one of Brown’s favorite poets, embodies Brown’s passion for justice, with the words “Freedom is a strong seed, planted in a great need”—a fitting description of Brown’s life work seeding justice, freedom and dignity for workers and marginalized peoples everywhere.

Memorial Service for Earl Brown March 25

Mar 28, 2017

The AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., is hosting a memorial for Brother Earl Brown, with a reception to follow.

Please RSVP to: information@solidaritycenter.org

If you are unable to attend, the memorial will be broadcast live here.

Saturday, March 25
AFL-CIO, 815 16th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.
Doors open at 2:30 p.m., program begins at 3 p.m.
Reception will follow.

Please RSVP to: information@solidaritycenter.org

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center or the Solidarity Center.

The Solidarity Center and the global labor movement lost a passionate civil-rights champion, tireless defender of workers, brilliant intellect and, most of all, a good friend yesterday. Earl V. Brown, Jr., Solidarity Center labor and employment law counsel, succumbed February 26 to complications following a long bout with pneumonia. He will be sorely missed by family, friends, colleagues and the thousands of workers whose lives he touched around the world.

Brown worked with grassroots groups in Thailand to advance social justice and labor rights. Here, he taught young lawyers from Burma in Mae Sot, Thailand, in 2011. Credit: Solidarity Center/Rudy Porter

A longtime U.S. labor activist, Earl had represented trade unions and employees in U.S. labor and civil-rights litigation since 1976. He served as general counsel of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, associate general counsel with the United Mine Workers of America, and was a partner in a U.S. labor and employment law firm before joining the Solidarity Center in 1999. He also was a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and recently served as the union co-chair of the International Labor Law Committee of the Labor and Employment Law Section of the American Bar Association.

His illustrious résumé, however, does not fully capture his compassion, humor and deep bond with workers and grassroots rights activists. Earl dedicated the last 17 years of his career to building a broader global labor and social justice movement. As Asia regional labor and employment law counsel for the Solidarity Center, he lived in Thailand for six years, where he worked directly with lawyers and grassroots groups to promote enforcement of labor, discrimination and employment law.

Earl Brown, Rev. William Barber, Solidarity Center, civil rights

Throughout his life, Brown was dedicated to pursuing civil rights. Here he meets with the Rev. Dr. William J Barber II. Photo courtesy Solidarity Center/Hanad Mohamud

Over his long career, Earl met, mentored, trained and supported workers, lawyers and human rights advocates confronting some of the world’s greatest injustices. His work helped Burmese migrants and refugees fight employment discrimination in Thailand; Bangladeshi lawyers pursue justice in Bangladeshi courts for victims of industrial disasters; networks of unions and NGOs expose occupational diseases; and strengthen workers’ compensation laws and practices across Asia.

“Earl was one of the smartest people I have ever met,’ said Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau. “He was deeply grounded politically, morally and in his work in the belief that the people of the global working class, especially the most disenfranchised, were the most important people in the world, and his work from Bangladesh to Thailand to China always reflected that. And he made me laugh. A lot. I will miss him like so many.”

Tributes to Earl Pouring in from around the World

Said Cathy Feingold, AFL-CIO international director: “We lost an incredible colleague and friend, Earl Brown. Civil rights lawyer, U.S. labor lawyer and rule of law expert for workers’ movements around the world. Rarely have I met someone with such a deep commitment to justice. He taught us all so much through his wisdom, humor and experience. He will be greatly missed and his memory will be honored by all of us who will continue to fight for justice here and with partners around the world.”

And Thailand’s Human Rights Development Foundation, a longtime Solidarity Center ally, released a statement that summed up Earl’s impact on the movement for social justice. “It is our hope, in the wake of Earl’s tragic passing, that others will find strength to continue promoting the rights of workers, protecting the vulnerable and fostering justice.”

Memorial Service

We will be honoring Earl’s lifelong commitment to civil rights and the labor movement with a memorial Saturday, March 25, at AFL-CIO headquarters, 815 16th Street, NW, Washington, D.C.
Doors at 2:30 p.m., and the program begins at 3 p.m. A reception will follow. Please RSVP to: information@solidaritycenter.org

Uzbek Human Rights Activist Elena Urlaeva Released

Mar 24, 2017

Uzbek human rights defender Elena Urlaeva was released from a psychiatric hospital in Tashkent yesterday where she was imprisoned for 23 days with neither her consent nor a court order to forcibly treat her, according to the Cotton Campaign. Urlaeva’s release follows an international campaign spearheaded by the Cotton Campaign, a global coalition of labor, human rights, investor and business organizations that includes the Solidarity Center.

Urlaeva was detained and beaten by Uzbekistan police the day before she was due to meet with representatives from the International Labor Organization (ILO), International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the World Bank to discuss state-led forced labor in Uzbekistan.

Urlaeva Repeatedly Detained for Documenting Forced Labor

Urlaeva has documented forced labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton fields for the past 16 years, and has repeatedly been arrested, beaten and imprisoned by Uzbek officials. Last year, she was imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital for more than a month and arrested five times as she spoke with people forced by the government to labor in the country’s cotton fields. She was physically assaulted during the subsequent interrogation. In 2015, Urlaeva was arrested, beaten and forced to injest sedatives, and police confiscated her camera, notebook and information sheet on ILO labor rights conventions.

“A number of times I was put into a psychiatry ward,” says Urlaeva in a video released last November. “They did their best to show to the international community that human rights activists are crazy and they should not be listened to.”

Child Labor Growing in Uzbekistan Cotton Fields

Each fall harvest, some 1 million teachers, medical professionals and others are forced to toil in Uzbekistan’s cotton fields. If they do not participate, they must pay for a replacement worker or lose their jobs. Children also are forced to pick cotton, according to a preliminarily report by the Uzbek-German Forum, reversing a move away from use of child labor in 2013 and 2014.

Uzbekistan, which gets an estimated $1 billion per year in revenue from cotton sales, faced high penalties from the World Bank and other financial institutions for not ending the practice. Rather than change, the government seeks to cover it up.

Urlaeva has been credited with helping significantly reduce child labor in cotton fields, and this year was among human rights defenders in Uzbekistan to receive the International Labor Rights Forum 2016 Labor Rights Defenders Award.

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