Repressing worker organizing

Workers are often the first to feel these pressures through crackdowns on organized workers, and are therefore frequently on the dangerous frontlines of fighting for democracy.  

Freedom of association and collective bargaining—the right to speak out collectively against abuse and poor conditions, to organize and join unions, to protest peacefully and strike—are fundamental to human rights. These rights are enshrined in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ILO Conventions, and the national laws of nearly all countries.  

The most effective and sustainable way to enforce labor standards is through worker organizing. Yet garment-producing countries rank among the worst offenders in restricting freedom of association and collective bargaining, with workers in the sector facing some of the most severe and systematic violations of these rights. 

Workers who exercise the right to organize are routinely retaliated against factories, with tacit or sometimes overt support by States. They face intimidation, violence or factory closure, are frequently dismissed and criminalized, even falsely imprisoned.  

Without being able to exercise collective power through associational rights, garment workers remain vulnerable to exploitation and abuse – harassment, dangerous conditions, excessive hours, and wage theft. Protecting and expanding grassroots worker organizing is therefore essential—not only for labor rights, but for strengthening democracy itself. 

Together with our partners around the world, the WRC has helped thousands of workers in more than a dozen countries, win reinstatement to their jobs after they were illegally fired and, in some cases, violently attacked or falsely jailed for exercising the right to freedom of association. We have also worked to ensure that these workers received proper back pay. 

The WRC has also helped tens of thousands of workers and their unions secure representational and organizing rights in their factories—and held factory managers accountable for violence and intimidation against worker activists.