Search

Search

Executive Council Statement

Voice@Work: The ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work

… It is no accident that as standards erode in one country, standards erode in other countries Corporations continue to compete by exploitation - playing nations against one another - lowering wages, scrapping regulations, loosening … multi-year, ongoing campaign to educate and mobilize and fight employers and governments who rob workers of their right to organize and bargain collectively, that employ children, that use forced labor or that discriminate in their … In 1998, the ILO once again reaffirmed the core conventions in a new "Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work." The Declaration clearly affirms that all 175 member countries, employers and trade unions endorse these principles and …
Speech

Trumka on Future of Work: We Have to Get This Right

… Trumka delivered the following remarks at a transatlantic conference with the German labor movement on the future of work:  Good morning. Thank you all for being here today. Brother Reiner (Hoffman), I appreciate your partnership and your leadership. We have a lot to learn from each other.  Just a few weeks ago, the AFL-CIO Commission on the Future of Work and Unions issued our final … to improve workers’ lives, but also threaten to degrade or eliminate millions of jobs. In other words, we have to get this right.  As you know, in the United States and around the world, stakeholders are engaging in a discussion about the future of …
Blog

Working People Have the Power to Restore Reproductive Rights

… This past week marked one year since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to overturn 50 years of precedent in Roe v. Wade. … This ruling continues to reverberate throughout our communities and have … and chaos, and it has become more evident that the quality of health care we receive depends on where we live and work and our economic standing. Each day, we read horrifying stories of women who are denied lifesaving care, doctors facing … statehouses across the country, working people are speaking out in favor of legislation that would protect and expand the right to bodily autonomy and the confidential relationship between providers and patients. We are also demanding that …
Blog

Future of Work Commission Urges Bargaining Rights for Digital Platform Workers

… A landmark report by the International Labor Organization’s (ILO’s) Global Commission on the Future of Work, released today, calls for giving full rights and protections, including collective bargaining rights, to digital platform workers. The ILO is the United Nations agency charged with promoting decent work and global labor … of whether they are treated as employees or independent contractors, enjoy fundamental worker rights such as the right to bargain collectively; an adequate living wage; maximum limits on working hours; freedom from forced labor, child …
Executive Council Statement

Fast Track or the Right Track?

… Fast Track or the Right Track?  March 06, 2007 Las Vegas AFL-CIO Executive Council statement U.S. trade policy today is barreling along down the wrong track, on a route littered with broken promises and missed opportunities, threatening to jump the rails altogether.  Our trade deficit hit a staggering $764 billion in 2006.  Real median wages and family income … as laid out in the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work: the freedom of association and the right to organize and bargain collectively, and prohibitions on child labor, forced …
Blog

Increase Wages, But Also Restore Rights

… improvement is more needed, however, than a new labor system in Mexico that secures for all workers the freedom to form and join free and independent unions, so that working people can act democratically and responsibly together to improve their wages and working conditions. … If Mexico’s corrupt labor system does not change, the rest of the NAFTA … and ability of our members to mobilize together with their communities, to democratically and responsibly exercise the right to strike to make the union grow with new investment projects, and to organize new members. It would be a mistake to …
Statement

Letter on the Eroding Labor Rights in Bangladesh

… Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). Unfortunately, over the last four years the Government of Bangladesh has failed to take steps to afford internationally recognized worker rights, including the right to freedom of association, the right to organize and collectively bargain, and the right to acceptable conditions of work (19 U.S.C. § 2462(c)(7)). The AFL- CIO filed petitions to this effect in 2007, 2011, 2012 and 2014. The International …
Blog

Nursing Home Initiative to Right America’s Injustices

… The worst of the pandemic appears to be over but make no mistake: Our country is still dealing with the loss of life and disability left in its wake as … are the most likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19, affording protection to others. But many lack a union, a voice at work to protect their own health, safety and economic interests.   Nowhere is this more true than in the nursing home sector, … continued to work as domestic workers in private households while earning very little. It’s past time we recognize and right these wrongs and compensate these workers fairly.  In 2021, President Biden announced a new initiative to establish a …
Press Release

Workers’ Rights Remain Critical as NAFTA Negotiations Continue

… the powerful global corporations that have made huge profits off the backs of North America’s working people. Getting it right is not easy, which is why we appreciate U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer’s close consultations and willingness to consider new ideas. However, more work needs to be done. North America’s economies are so integrated that it is hard to see how this new deal could work if our …
Blog

Levin: Improving Workers' Rights in Mexico Key to Improving NAFTA

… (D-Mich.) describes dismal working conditions in Mexico and argues that improving the rights of Mexico's working people to join together in union is a key way to improve the North American Free Trade Agreement. … An excerpt: After delaying labor reform for two decades, Mexico put a constitutional amendment on fast track, allowing workers to vote for officers and to ratify contracts. This effort occurred in the prelude to the vote in the U.S. Congress on the …