'Organizing Migrant Workers'

Date
From: 14 June 2012 11:00
Till: 14 June 2012 11:00

Location:
Room 3.26

Description
Workshop at ISS

Source: United for Foreign Domestic Workers' Rights

Content

Migrant workers are disproportionally present in precarious work prone to poor conditions and insecurities. Indeed they are highly concentrated amongst workers in the informal economy. Many of them are exploited by their employers and middle-persons. Their host states often deny them effective access to their labour rights. Yet, far from remaining passive victims, many migrant workers actively organize for the improvement of their working lives.

The objective of this workshop is to get to know a range of strategies that migrant workers in the Netherlands and elsewhere have used to lobby for better working conditions and to discuss their effectiveness with practitioners.

Tentative agenda

11.00hrs: Welcome & introductory remarks (Freek Schiphorst, ISS)

11.10hrs: Input “Organizing East-European migrant workers in the Netherlands” (Stanisław Bernaś, FNV Bondgenoten)

11.25hrs: Input “Lobbying for the ratification of the Migrant Workers Convention” (Yasmine MS Soraya, Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (IMWU))

11.40hrs: Input “To join or not to join? Trade union membership amongst migrant domestic workers in the Netherlands” (Chidchon Chansilpa, Thuy Nhien Nguyen Huyen, Bunga Manggiasih, Kumud Rana, Martha Jane Robbins, Catalina Rocha, ISS MA participants)

11.55hrs: Open discussion (moderation Karin Astrid Siegmann, ISS)

12.50hrs: Concluding remarks (Freek Schiphorst, ISS)

13.00hrs: Lunch at ISS cantine