Media Highlights

Factories give employees a travel allowance of $7, but they often end up spending more on a ragtag band of owner-operator driving services. “For them [the drivers], the more people you get on, the more profit you get,” says William Conklin, country director for international labor rights NGO Solidarity Center. “They’re not concerned about safety, they’re concerned about making ends meet.”

“A study by Rutgers, the AFL-CIO and the Solidarity Center indicates there is a direct link between growing income inequality and declining unionization. Equalizing benefits of union membership is more substantial for women.”

While local factory owners and foreign buyers engage in disputes, workers suffer, said Alonzo Suson, director of Solidarity Center programs in Bangladesh. “A lot remains to be done. We need the political will of the government.”

“For international donors seeking to protect rights throughout supply chains and beyond, meaningful support is required for building strong country-level institutions—from government agencies and judicial systems to trade unions—capable of advancing justice across borders,” said the Solidarity Center’s Sonia Mistry.

“With a more democratic government coming to power, Burma can and should set conditionalities on IFI agreements to ensure civil society voice and protection of environmental, labor and indigenous peoples’ rights,” said Solidarity Center Director of Asia Programs Tim Ryan.

“It’s unsurprising the factory uses illegal timber,” said William Conklin, Cambodia director for U.S.-based labor rights group Solidarity Center. “We know energy costs are high in Cambodia. And it’s actually the highest cost in [garment] production so factories would seek to minimize that.”

In discussing the anniversary of the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory complex, Global Envision pulls information from a New York Times op-ed by David Welsh, Solidarity Center country director for Indonesia and former country director for Cambodia: “To counteract the brands’ habit of playing one producing country off another, governments from sourcing countries should act together. Rather than be driven by the fear of losing out to one another, they should form a bloc and insist that the big brands set uniform standards for wages, union rights and workplace safety.”

Story by the Solidarity Center’s Tula Connell about women and their unions fighting for this protection republished.

“It is an obligation of states to not just provide jobs, but to make sure they are good jobs,” said Shawna Bader-Blau, executive director of the AFL-CIO-allied Solidarity Center. “The global garment industry does not have a good track record, especially in special economic zones. And the Jordanian government has no good track record to ensure that rights at work are protected, that dormitories have decent conditions for workers. I’d say that any temporary job program for migrants, either refugees from war or other migrants, is susceptible to exploitation absent guaranteed rights to freely form a union and collectively bargain and actively practice those rights.”

Solidarity Center’s Neha Misra said, “Before U.S. law said that we would tolerate forced labor if we really wanted a product for domestic consumption. Now, we are saying that we will not tolerate forced labor for any reason. This is a major step forward,” in response to an announcement that federal officials are preparing to enforce an 86-year-old ban on importing goods made by children or slaves under new provisions of a law signed by President Barack Obama.