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From Haiti to Kenya, Nepal and Palestine, hundreds of thousands of workers and their families celebrated International Workers Day last week, honoring the dignity of work and the accomplishments of the labor movement in defending human rights, job stability, fair...
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MWRN: A Champion for Migrant Worker Rights in Thailand
Reach for a can of tuna in your cupboard and there is a good chance it was packed by a migrant worker in Thailand. In southern Samut Sakhon Province, near the Gulf of Thailand, 6,000 factories employ some of the estimated 2 million to 4 million migrant workers, and...
Migrant Workers in Thailand Arrested for Volunteering
Two female migrant workers from Myanmar were arrested in Thailand, fined and await deportation for volunteering their time to teach children of migrant workers at a Buddhist monastery, an action the Thailand-based Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF) is...
Migrant Workers in Thailand Win Justice for Abuse at Work
Worker rights advocates are hailing a recent court decision in Thailand that dismissed criminal defamation charges against 14 migrant workers from Myanmar who faced jail time after reporting abusive working conditions on a poultry farm. Fourteen workers who left the...
Joining Across Borders: Solidarity Center Celebrates 20!
Some 300 allies, coalition partners and sponsors of the Solidarity Center packed the Longview Gallery in Washington, D.C., last night to celebrate the organization’s 20th anniversary. The day began with a book launch and discussion on informal workers and collective...
Workers Empowered: 2016 Solidarity Center Annual Report
Over the past year, the Confederation of Trade Unions-Myanmar (CTUM) added 7,000 members and the El Salvador sugarcane cutters union, SITRACANA, affiliated 936 new members between with Solidarity Center support. Meanwhile, through cooperation with the Solidarity...
Burmese Rice Farmer: With a Union, We Improve Our Livelihood
For years, Kyin San, like many rice farmers in Myanmar, worried that her land would be confiscated for large-scale development, as had so many other farms over the years. But now, Kyin Sun says, farmers are no longer hesitant to negotiate with the government to settle...
WOMEN@WORK: MAKING BREAKTHROUGHS WITH THEIR UNIONS
Despite modest gains in some regions in the world over the past two decades, women are more likely than men to become and remain unemployed, have fewer chances to participate in the workforce and often must accept dangerous, low-paying jobs, according to Women at...
Solidarity Center: 20 Years Working for Worker Rights
Over the past 20 years, the Solidarity Center has helped eliminate child labor in Liberian rubber plantations; assisted Iraqi trade unions in passing an unprecedented labor law that addresses sexual discrimination at work; campaigned to end workplace-based racism...
Workers Rights Are Human Rights: Working People Exercise Freedom of Association
In recent decades, the global economy has grown rapidly. But as global production has increased, so too has global inequality. Inequality has skyrocketed. Many governments have prioritized the interests of multinational corporations over those of workers–including...
Solidarity Center Backs Migrant Workers, Refugees
The toxic spread of xenophobia, racism, misogyny and fear marginalizes millions of migrant workers and refugees—further disenfranchising people whose jobs do not lift them from poverty, afford them safe workplaces or uphold their dignity. The Solidarity Center is...
Lwin Lwin Mar, Burmese Garment Worker Gains Rights at Work through Union
I am Ma Lwin Lwin Mar and 34 years old. I come from Ngaputaw Township in Ayeyarwaddy Region to Hlaing Thar Yar and work in a garment factory. (Hlaing Thar Yar is a factory district outside Yangon, Myanmar's capital, where 700,000 workers make clothes and goods for...
‘After a Day’s Work, We Are Happy to Still Be Alive’
Win Nay Aung Thant works from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. or 7 p.m., at a garment factory in Myanmar and is paid just enough to survive. The factory's electrical wiring is unsafe and Win says "after a day's work, we are happy to still be alive."
Trafficking Report Highlights Uzbekistan Abuses
Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, two countries where forced labor in cotton harvests is rampant, have been downgraded to the lowest ranking in the U.S. State Department’s 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report released this morning. The report also downgraded Myanmar (Burma)...
Cambodian Men Testify in Thai Fishing Boat Trafficking Case
The case was filed on Tuesday at the court, which accepted the case and immediately heard victim testimony, said Preeda Tongchumnum, another lawyer on the case, who also works with the Solidarity Center, a U.S.-based worker rights organization. Also ran in: The Irrawaddy (Myanmar)
Lwin Lwin Kyaw: After Joining Union, Worksite Problems Solved
I am Ma Lwin Lwin Kyaw. I come from Mawlamyainggyun Township in Ayeyarwaddy Region and work here (in the Hlaing Thar Yar factory district outside Yangon). I started to work in 2012 in the garment factory. I am 26 years old. I joined the trade union (the Confederation...
Celebrating Workers: 2015 Year in Photos
Whether building a towering office building in downtown Zimbabwe, sewing garments in a Bangladesh factory or digging for phosphate in Mexico mines, the world's unsung working people demonstrate, time and again, the dignity of work. Here, we celebrate some of the...
‘I Was a Garment Worker and I Know Exploitation’
The “Made in Jordan” label is familiar to U.S. consumers shopping for shirts, jeans and other clothes. Mervat Jumhawi, a Jordanian union organizer, is actively ensuring the largely migrant workforce that cuts and sews these garments does so in safe conditions,...
In Burma, a Moment in History for Unions
What a difference four months can make. When I first went to Burma in January of this year, some of the Federation of Trade Unions-Burma (FTUB) labor activists I met with were too worried about security forces to meet me in public. The officers of the Agriculture and...