Friend in solidarity,
Many people think unions only focus on addressing wage and workplace issues.
In my 20 years at the Solidarity Center, I’ve talked to union members in more than 60 countries — platform delivery drivers in the Philippines, garment workers in Bangladesh, domestic workers in Brazil. I’ve heard about the issues that move people to join and form unions directly from workers themselves. And here is what I’ve learned:
Unions and their members are fighting for democracy. They’re fighting for economic AND political justice — because the two go hand in hand.
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Unions have always known economic justice and healthy democracy cannot be achieved in a political system where the scales are tipped against working-class people. You have to take on both the consolidation of wealth AND political power.
These fights start in the workplace when workers unite to take action and demand that their employer come to the bargaining table.
Take, for example, the story of farmworkers in Morocco. These workers, mostly women who pick dates and grapes for wine, began organizing because they were experiencing unsafe working conditions. After decades of working with no fixed hours, days off, sick leave or social protections, they organized enough workers to win their union — the Confédération Démocratique du Travail —and to collectively bargain for the entire agriculture sector under Moroccan law. With a union, the workers addressed health and safety issues, gained access to health care and secured their share in the prosperity they helped create.
But unions don’t stop there.
The issues that unions take on — health and safety, respect and having a voice, being able to support yourself and your family, retiring with dignity — can’t be solved one workplace at a time. They are society-wide issues.
So unions and their members take demands from the workplace out into their communities, building movements of people who use collective action to expand rights for all working-class people, not just their members.
One amazing example is the Organization of Trade Unions of West Africa’s (OTUWA) efforts to ensure everyone in the Economic Community of West African States has equal and fair access to health care. OTUWA partnered with other union federations and community organizations to advocate with legislators and policymakers across the region to invest in health care. Their advocacy recently led to an almost $70 million investment in essential health care services for Nigerians — more than 90 percent of whom work uncertain, poorly paid informal jobs.
Unions are making real cultural and political change possible at community, national and global levels. And they’re fighting for democracy in the world’s most challenging places.
In countries like Bangladesh, Belarus, Egypt, Eswatini, Honduras, Hong Kong, Myanmar, the Philippines, Serbia, Tunisia and Zimbabwe, unions are leading struggles — often in the face of repression — to defend and promote the fundamentals of democracy like the right to vote, to fight for human and labor rights without risk of violence, freedom of speech and assembly, equity for all and the right to have independent unions that can give voice to average workers. They’re building inspiring momentum for change.
Today, on the International Day of Democracy, I am reflecting on our union partners’ critical work to protect and build democracies. The Solidarity Center has and will continue to support that work in many ways.
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I encourage you to follow us on social media where we share stories like the ones in this message – how the world’s workers are using unions to strengthen democracy. If you already follow us, don’t forget to share the posts so your colleagues, friends and family can learn more about this important work.
In solidarity,
Shawna Bader-Blau
Solidarity Center Executive Director
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