The Labor Link
A Podcast on Workers Rights and Global Supply Chains
The Labor Link Podcast supports workers' rights in global supply chains by sharing personal stories and perspectives of the brave individuals organizing the workers who make our stuff.
The Labor Link Podcast is hosted by Judy Gearhart of American University’s Accountability Research Center and produced by Empathy Media Lab of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.
The Workers Rights Consortium,
Research Report on Fashion brands' complicity in wage theft during Covid-19,
provides important research on the fight for garment workers.
Thailand
Aung Kyaw is one of the founders and longtime lead organizers of the Migrant Worker Rights Network, a membership-based organization for migrant workers from Myanmar residing and working mainly in Thailand. Having fled Myanmar in 1988 after the military coup, Aung Kyaw worked in shrimp peeling sheds, studied the Thai labor law, and soon began organizing fellow migrant workers to demand better treatment.
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Thailand
Sawit Kaewwan, the secretary general of the State Enterprises Workers’ Relations Confederation (SERC), has mobilized the Thai trade union movement to support migrant workers, especially those at risk for human trafficking. Sawit’s vision has been to build an inclusive labor movement and strategies to empower migrant workers. He provides a clear view into the challenges and risks that come with movement building.
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Bangladesh
Kalpona Akter is a former child worker and labor activist from Bangladesh. She is the founder and Executive Director of the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity and was awarded Human Rights Watch's Alison Des Forges award for Extraordinary Activism.
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Cambodia
Tola Moeun Tola is a human rights defender and the Executive Director of the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights (CENTRAL), an NGO which supports Cambodian labourers by providing them with legal aid, and other appropriate means, to demand transparent and accountable governance on labour and human rights issues.
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About the Host of
The Labor Link Podcast
Judy Gearhart
Accountability Research Center
Judy Gearhart is a senior researcher at the Accountability Research Center and an adjunct professor at Columbia University. Previously she served as the executive director at the International Labor Rights Forum and programs director at Social Accountability International. She also worked in Mexico and Honduras on trade, labor rights, and democratic participation.
About the Accountability Research Center
The Accountability Research Center (ARC) is based in American University’s School of International Service. ARC bridges research and frontline perspectives to learn from ideas, institutions, and actors that advance strategies to improve public accountability.
Through extensive dialogue with partners and collaborators, ARC co-designs exploratory research that is relevant for their strategies and can contribute to international thinking about how change happens.