“All workers deserve fair wages and safe, dignified work.”
All workers deserve jobs that support them and their families. Yet too often, that’s not the case. Across industries and borders, workers are coming together and organizing around principles of worker justice. The vision: Living wages, safe, healthy workplaces, policies to safeguard basic rights, and the freedom to form a union to negotiate those rights.
Worker-led campaigns, unions, and certifiers are all working to create policies, laws, and labels to protect workers.
Certifications: Look for strong fair labor certifications to use your buying power for good. Products such as clothing, tea, fruits, and vegetables from factories, large farms, and plantations around the globe may bear a fair labor certification. Workers in these industries are some of the most marginalized and exploited in the world. Even in countries with relatively strong labor laws like the U.S., farmworkers may be excluded because of outdated loopholes.
While all the labels address similar principles of worker justice, they vary both in the details and in their vision for worker empowerment. Our certification resources break it all down for you so you can choose products that align with your values.
Worker Movements: Around the globe and here at home, workers are coming together to advocate for jobs with dignity. In the U.S., the grassroots movement to raise the minimum wage is bringing workers across sectors together. Movements for worker justice look beyond a livable hourly wage to encompass immigration reform and advocacy for fair trade policies that support workers and jobs, not just corporate profits.
Grassroots Unions: There is strength in unity when workers come together and speak with a collective voice. Grassroots unions support frontline workers as they advocate for better wages and benefits and safe, dignified workplaces. While the right to organize is recognized under international law, in practice, some of the most marginalized workers, including farmworkers in the U.S. often struggle for recognition.
TOOLKIT
Raise the Wage Fact Sheet
A short resource that lays out key facts about current minimum wage laws in the U.S.
Debunk common myths and learn more about the growing movement to raise the minimum wage.
Find Fair Fashion
The path from cotton to clothes is long and complex. Apparel supply chains are notoriously short on transparency and full of exploitation.
This resource offers shopping resources and advocacy and activism tips.