Addressing unemployment and underemployment, especially for young workers, is the most pressing issue for trade unions across Africa, according to participants in an African Labor Leaders Exchange Program sponsored by the Solidarity Center. Speaking at a December 9...
The Solidarity Center, in partnership with the U.S.-based United Steelworkers (USW), works with Liberian unions in key extractive industries such as mining, timber and rubber, as well as with domestic workers, to enable them to better serve their members and assist workers in forming unions.
Through Solidarity Center and USW shop steward trainings, United Workers Union of Liberia (UWUL) and the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia (FAWUL) won groundbreaking agreements in mining and on the Firestone Natural Rubber Company plantation, respectively. FAWUL’s agreement with Firestone ended child labor and increased wages on the rubber plantation. The company agreed in a subsequent pact to build a school for workers’ children.
In partnership with unions, the Solidarity Center conducts trainings in preventing and eliminating gender-based violence and harassment at work. And, with support from the Solidarity Center and the USW, the Domestic Workers Union of Liberia (DOWUL) mobilizes and assists domestic workers, vulnerable to abuses working in private homes, in championing their rights.
Liberia Law Boosts Rights of Informal-Economy Workers
Liberian domestic workers and other informal-economy workers in Liberia are set to receive significant wage gains, collective bargaining rights and labor law protection under the Decent Work Bill signed today by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. The bill takes effect...
Liberian Unions Key to Stopping Ebola Spread
In Liberia, no new cases of Ebola have been reported in the past week and the overall death toll, while horrific at nearly 4,200, is far less than some health experts predicted last year—a result based in part on the coordinated efforts of the Liberian trade union...