[EVENT] Ever Essential: Women’s Work Is the Backbone of the Global Economy

Date: March 8, 2021
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. EST
Place: Virtual. Registration required.

Join inspiring women union leaders from Colombia, Ghana, Palestine and the U.S. to learn how the world’s ever-essential women workers are organizing around the globe to promote and defend the rights of women workers to equality, good jobs and an end to violence and abuse. Co-sponsored by CLUW and the Solidarity Center.

Arabic and Spanish simultaneous interpretation will be provided.
الترجمة الفورية ستكون متاحة باللغتين العربية والأسبانية.
La interpretación simultánea estará disponible en árabe y español

Registration in advance is required.

Moderated by CLUW National President Elise Bryant  
Labor Heritage Foundation Executive Director Elise Bryant was elected CLUW national president by Convention delegates in 2017. She served as bargaining unit chair at the National Labor College for eight years and is a longstanding member of the Communications Workers of America (CWA)/The News Guild (TNG).

Speakers include:
Dr. Sanaa Alsarghali, Chairwoman, Women, Media and Development (TAM), Palestine
Dr. Sanaa Alsarghali is the elected chairwoman of Women, Media and Development (TAM), ‎a non-governmental organization dedicated to correcting the stereotypical image of Palestinian women in the media. Last year she was appointed the UNESCO Chair on Human Rights, Democracy and Peace at An-Najah University. The first Palestinian woman to be awarded a Ph.D. in Constitutional Law, Alsarghali co-founded and directs the university’s constitutional studies center and serves on the Palestine Liberation Organization’s legislative drafting committee.

Carolina Del Valle Hevia de Brandts, Secretary General, Union de Trabajadores de Plataformas–UNIDAPP, Colombia
Carolina Del Valle Hevia de Brandts founded Union de Trabajadores de Plataformas – UNIDAPP, a new union representing more than a thousand Colombian and Venezuelan workers delivering food from restaurants and grocery stores to homes. A recent refugee to Colombia, she while working for an online and app-driven food-delivery service she organized her coworkers and led protests demanding decent wages, job safety and health protections for gig economy workers in the country.

Emelia Ghansah, Training and Education Head, General Agricultural Workers’ Union of Ghana (GAWU), Ghana
Emelia Ghansah has more than 16 years of experience in the Ghana labor movement including almost two decades in labor education and, from 2008-2012, the organizing of rural women into the union. For GAWU, she coordinates a palm oil sector project for global union federation International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) in five West African countries that is identifying health hazards to women on the plantations and promoting the appointment of women as health and safety representatives.

Koren M. Parker, President, CLUW Philadelphia Chapter and Staff Representative, AFSCME Council 13, U.S.
As Philly CLUW president, Koren M. Parker helps lead local initiatives furthering community-service work projects and anti-trafficking, and national initiatives addressing issues important to women and working families such as paid leave and closing the gender pay gap. As a staff representative at AFSCME Council 13, she represents rank and file members working for Lincoln and Cheyney Universities, Norristown Municipality, Merakey and the Commonwealth of Philadelphia.  As an advocate for women’s rights and fair working conditions, Koren strives every day to better someone’s life.

Liz Shuler, Secretary-Treasurer, AFL-CIO, U.S.
Elizabeth H. Shuler is the AFL-CIO’s Secretary-Treasurer, its second ranking officer, the first woman elected to the position and the youngest woman ever on the federation’s Executive Council. Shuler oversees the federation’s operations and leads the AFL-CIO’s initiatives on the future of work, the clean energy economy, workforce development and empowering women and young workers.