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Workers

Solidarity Center Empowers Workers at International Labor Conference

Strategic Insights

— 2 min read

Solidarity Center and its partners showcased worker power at the 2025 International Labor Conference, where workers joined together to fight for better jobs and a better world. With over 154 million to 435 million workers holding online jobs worldwide, the conference focused on developing a global treaty promoting decent work for app-based workers. The Solidarity Center's ILAW Network and its partners advocated for the development of a Convention establishing decent work for platform workers worldwide.

Key Takeaways:

  • Solidarity Center and its partners showcased worker power at the 2025 International Labor Conference, where workers joined together to fight for better jobs and a better world.
  • The conference focused on developing a global treaty promoting decent work for app-based workers, with over 154 million to 435 million workers holding online jobs worldwide.
  • The Solidarity Center's ILAW Network and its partners advocated for the development of a Convention establishing decent work for platform workers worldwide.
  • Workers, employers, and government members met in Geneva to debate and draft the content of the Convention, with Solidarity Center playing a key role in ensuring worker input and participation.
  • The involvement of platform workers from seven countries was crucial in shaping the proposed Convention and its Recommendations, which represented workers' real-life experiences and concerns.
  • Solidarity Center worked closely with platform worker delegates to ensure they contributed to the ILC's multiple draft reports, advocated with lawmakers, and engaged in training to hone their messages.
  • The ILC served as a powerful space for South-South exchange, where delegates strengthened trust, shared strategies, and discussed common challenges related to ensuring labor standards cover digital platform workers.
  • The Solidarity Center enabled strong worker power and worker democracy through its participation in the ILC, and will continue to create a dedicated space for cross-regional collaboration among digital app-based workers.
  • The ILC outcomes document represented the success of working people in upholding the freedom to form unions and the right to collectively bargain as a right for "all workers" as essential for transitioning to inclusion in fundamental labor rights.
  • Workers' involvement in the conference shaped the outcomes document, ensuring it represented their lived experiences and the necessity for safe working conditions, employer and government accountability, and formalization efforts.

Statistics:

  • 154 million to 435 million workers hold online jobs worldwide.
  • The ILC serves as a platform for worker, employer, and government representatives to debate policy, make decisions, and negotiate new international labor standards.
  • The Solidarity Center has a dedicated space for cross-regional collaboration among digital app-based workers.
  • The ILC outcomes document includes provisions ensuring the rights of informal economy workers, including the importance of a safe and healthy working environment.

Sources:

  • Solidarity Center press release
  • International Labor Organization (ILO) publications
  • ILAW Network publication, Taken for a Ride 3 - Lost in a Crowd: How Crowdworkers Are Denied Their Rights at Work
  • Democratic Confederation of Labor (CDT) in Morocco statement
  • International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF) statement
  • UNI Global statement
  • Women in Informal Employment Globalizing & Organizing (WIEGO) statement

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