How Iceland is Fighting the Gender Pay Gap

Workers at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island voted to unionize after two years of organizing by the independent Amazon Labor Union. The union was started by a worker who was fired from the warehouse after protesting unsafe conditions during the COVID-19, and a current employee. The union raised funds through GoFundMe to carry out innovative organizing tactics, like making TikTok videos and bringing free food from diverse cultural backgrounds to feed workers coming and going from their around the clock shifts.

Democracy Vouchers, a tax-payer-funded program that sends four $25 certificates to residents to donate to local candidates, made Seattle the national leader by increasing the percent of the electorate donating to local campaigns to nearly 8%. They also allow more non-establishment candidates, who lack connections to wealthy donors, to run for office. Four of the nine 2019 city council candidates used vouchers to help fund their campaigns and the vouchers are being expanded to the city’s mayoral races. A national pilot program was also approved to try vouchers for congressional candidates in three states.

Giving domestic workers a seat at the table elevates their voices and provides them with access to protections enshrined in labor laws. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the passage of the Philadelphia Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights extends worker protections to those previously left out of traditional labor laws. The new law, passed with the combined effort of the Pennsylvania Domestic Worker Alliance (PDWA), Philadelphia’s City Council, and the support of Philadelphia AFL-CIO, grants domestic workers access to employer-funded benefits and paid time off.

In the Dominican Republic, employees at the Alta Gracia factory are paid 2.5 times the national minimum wage, a salary that is widely unheard of in the garment factories that make t-shirts and sports merchandise for American consumers. While the business has sometimes struggled to maintain investors and turn a profit, the guarantee of a living wage has introduced much deserved financial stability in the lives of workers who are often relegated to substandard conditions and minimal wages.

Part 1 of a series on solutions to freeing victims of labor trafficking around the globe. Labor trafficking is a deeply entrenched problem, woven into global economies where the victims are often hidden in plain sight. Almost everyone in the US owns some product likely made with slave labor. But there is hope - from grassroots workers’ coalitions to multilateral treaties and geo-data manipulation to new law enforcement initiatives, individuals are finding new ways to counter labor trafficking.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) formed the first worker-driven social responsibility program in 1993, and since then they’ve advocated across industries for corporate social responsibility and preventing worker exploitation. The CIW also created the Fair Food Program which has helped add more than $45 million to farm workers’ paychecks.

The Landless Workers Movement in Brazil is fighting for land access for rural workers and is breaking up unequal land monopolies by squatting on privately-owned vacant land. This practice attracts the attention of the federal government, which assesses whether it can buy the land and provide it to the movement to live and farm on.

Graduate student unions, like Oregon State University’s Coalition of Graduate Employees, use collective bargaining to allow student employees to successfully negotiate for fair wages, reasonable hours, and other terms of employment.

Trader Joe’s stores across the United States are pushing for unionization with mixed results. While some stores have seen success, others have faced union-busting tactics and, in one scenario, an abrupt store closure.

Meatpacking workers protested Covid-19 safety concerns and a coalition of advocacy groups filed a civil rights complaint with the government accusing Tyson and JBS USA of racial discrimination during the pandemic because the safety issues disproportionately impact line workers, who are largely people of color. Nevada’s Culinary Union also sued Las Vegas Strip casinos for unsafe working conditions. Two casinos have been dropped from the suit after deciding to negotiate privately with the union and Tyson has since instituted some safety measures, but broader impacts of the complaints remain to be seen.