Portside

In 2019, the International Labor Organization estimates there are more than 24 million migrant workers across the Gulf region alone — typically employed in low-wage jobs in construction, domestic housework, seafaring and caregiving.

Livelihood conditions are worsening, with trade unionists arrested, internal displacement increasing and youth fleeing the country to escape conscription. An end to military rule is vital if the cycles of human rights repression is to be addressed.

It is time to make good on promises made in the ILO Declaration of Philadelphia, 80 years since its publication. By harnessing the trade union movement's collective power we can ensure that progress envisaged under the Declaration becomes a reality.

Trade-offs between the human right to work and the human right to a healthy environment need to be avoided when applying "just transition" logic.

At the International Labour Conference, PSI has also underlined that corporates that made huge profits at the expense of workers and people’s rights are to be held accountable for the multi-layer crisis we are facing.

Home-based workers are not even officially recognised as workers, so there have been no special schemes set up for them. Our people have no social security, no pensions and no insurance. Now there’s no work which means no income.

Only 25 countries have ratified ILO convention 189 that declares domestic workers should enjoy the same rights as other workers. Nonetheless, important advances in their struggle have been made world-wide.

Labor in Commonwealth countries from the former British empire want to ensure that there is no cliff edge before Brexit becomes a reality.

After years of struggle, El Salvador workers have won a victory with a new minimum wage that has made an enormous impact in people's lives. Corporate power has not given up, preferring to pay starvation wages they are attempting to roll back the gains made.