Mission

STITCH is a network of women unionists, organizers, and activists that builds connections between Central American and US women organizing for economic justice.

Vision

STITCH seeks to create a world where women workers are able to improve their lives through organizing and exercising their rights. We envision skilled women workers leading organizations to further their rights in the workplace and in society.

STITCH strives to be accountable to a diverse group of women, in both Central America and the United States , which is reflected in our own leadership and staff. Our programs are developed in collaboration with the women they aim to support.

As women leaders and activists in the US and Central America , we face many of the same challenges, and what we have in common is greater than our differences. By connecting the struggles of diverse women across the US and Central America, we believe that all of our organizations become stronger and women leaders grow and learn from each other.

Strategies
In Central America, STITCH provides support to women workers before, during, and after union organizing campaigns by carrying out training exchanges, leadership development workshops, and delegations. These programs increase skills and build ties of understanding between US and Central American women leaders, workers, and activists. STITCH also documents and publicizes the experiences of women workers impacted by the global economy to build solidarity and to ensure their voices are heard across borders.

In the United States , STITCH educates the general public about the lives of women workers in Central America . STITCH gives US advocates the information and opportunity to impact corporate and trade policies that affect workers in Central America . STITCH also brings workers from Central America to the United States to exchange ideas and strategies to build the Union and Women's Movements.

Accomplishments

In Central America   

STITCH conducted our first workshops with the Guatemalan Textile Federation in 1997 and 1998. Those early efforts focused on support for women in the newly-unionized Philips-Van Heusen (PVH) factory in Guatemala . Our efforts included sending a STITCH solidarity delegation with a woman leader from a unionized PVH factory in the US and holding two training workshops with the union. STITCH also created a solidarity campaign in the United States by bringing a Central American PVH organizer to tour the country and organizing letter writing and leafleting at PVH stores. The PVH workers became the first and only textile workers in Guatemala to have a union contract.

Since January 2000, STITCH has had a continuous on the ground staff presence in Central America and has trained hundreds of women workers throughout the region. In the past four years, STITCH held workshops in Honduras , Nicaragua , Guatemala , and El Salvador in both the maquila (factories set up primarily to produce goods for export) and banana industries. These workshops have focused on a variety of topics, including strategy development, strengthening the unions through outreach and recruitment, health and safety, solving workplace problems, and collective bargaining.

In 2003 in Honduras , STITCH worked extensively with SITRACOR (the Union of Corazon Factory Workers), a newly-formed maquila union. STITCH developed series of trainings with them to fortify their union and prepare them for collective bargaining. In February of 2004, SITRACOR signed a new contract which included a raise, health and safety precautions, as well as more control over their production quotas. The majority of the contract negotiators had attended STITCH trainings.

In Guatemala , STITCH worked with SITRABI (the Union of Banana Workers in Izabal) by holding a series of training that would assist SITRABI in reaching out to its younger members and developing them as the next generation of leaders of the union.

In the United States
STITCH has organized training exchanges and events with Central American trade unionists and US union women. In 2003, STITCH worked with the Southern School for Union Women (in association with the United Association of Labor Educators) to bring Central American union leaders to a week-long training in Birmingham, AL to give presentations on international solidarity and trade issues. STITCH has also facilitated participation by women leaders from Central America in a number of community and national events, including the Immigrant Freedom Ride, organized by the AFL-CIO.

STITCH also played an important role in building solidarity among unionist fighting for fair trade rules. In November of 2003, STITCH brought three women union leaders from Central America to participate in activities organized in response to a negotiating meeting on the Free Trade Area of the Americas Trade Agreement. Working in coalition with other organizations, these women trained immigrant union leaders from Miami and participated in workshops and press conferences to bring their unique perspective to this important debate.

STITCH has also brought together unionists by organizing delegations to Central America by women unionists from the United States . In addition to direct exchanges, STITCH has also published booklets documenting the experience of women workers in Central America to educate women and men in the United States .