Who We Are and What We Do

Women in Central America and the U.S. face similar challenges in the workplace, especially when it comes to low wages, discrimination, insufficient childcare services and dangerous working conditions. To change these shared conditions, STITCH, founded in 1998, unites Central American and U.S. women workers to exchange strategies on how to fight for economic justice in the workplace. STITCH equips women with the essential skills through trainings and educational tools, and in the process, builds lasting relationships with women across the two regions, further empowering women in the labor movement. STITCH also ensures women's voices are heard in global debates and discussions on issues that impact them: globalization, trade agreements, immigration policy, and global labor standards.

STITCH is a 501(c)3 organization and all donations to STITCH are tax-deductible.

Programs

Central America Programs
Workshops and Advocacy:
STITCH joins forces with labor unions throughout Central America to provide skillbuilding workshops on fighting for better wages and work conditions for women. The workshops are often the only chance for women to receive training that is specific to their lives, as women's programs are often few and far between in the region. STITCH has been able to bring trainers from the U.S. to educate workers as well as arrange for local leaders from unions and women's groups to lead workshops. STITCH also organizes exchanges between workers and unions in the region to support workers learning from others' experience. In addition to our workshops, STITCH plays a constant role in fighting for the rights of workers by putting pressure on the owners of factories for better working conditions and working with allies to encourage governments to take their proper role in enforcing labor laws and punishing violations.

Women, Labor, and Leadership Manual
To increase the number of women benefited by STITCH's workshops, STITCH is developing the Women, Labor, and Leadership Manual, an educational tool labor organizers can use in workshops to teach
women how to fight for better workplace rights in Central America. The Manual can be used without STITCH being present, allowing more women to be reached throughout the region. The trainings focus
on gender, globalization, women's leadership and union organizing and are written for labor organizers with little or no formal training experience. An advisory group, made up of several women from
Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, are working
with STITCH to develop the Manual. The advisory group includes representatives from the banana sector such as the Honduran organization, COSIBAH and the Guatemalan union, SITRABI; members of the International Garment Textile and Leather Workers
Federation, the coordinator of the Guatemalan maquila workers' center and from Nicaragua, a current maquila worker and member of the Textile Federation.

More information: Leadership Workshops and Curriculum Project

North America Programs
STITCH educates U.S. and Canadian organizers, activists and workers about the lives of women workers in Central America and provides them with the tools to impact corporate and trade policies that affect workers in Central America. In particular, STITCH reaches out
to women in the labor movement to connect them with the international struggle. STITCH also works to bring more diverse women into the globalization debates and labor rights debates. STITCH is also developing a program in 2007, that will directly work towards supporting Latina, women, immigrants in the United States in the Struggle for economnic justice.

The Other Immigrants: STITCH's New Project Working with Immigrant Women in the United States
STITCH is currently interviewing Latina women around the United States.

More information on: The Other Immigrants

Building a Bridge Between Central America and North America

In order to increase the knowledge of activists and organizers in the U.S. labor and women's movement, STITCH brings women workers from Central America to North America each year. The women workers from Central America share their strategies and struggles and provide global linkages to local and national fights, building an understanding
of labor solidarity and the interconnectedness of STITCH's issues. In addition, STITCH brings U.S. activists and unionists to Central America to allow them to experience a different culture, share their experiences, and learn more about the global struggle for workers rights. STITCH also documents women's experiences in both regions to use to educate others.

Presentations and Speaking Events

STITCH has sponsored Central American workers? participation in the Summer School for Union Women training conferences for the past four years in four different regions of the United States; the AFL-CIO's Immigrant Freedom Ride; educational events at the Free Trade Area of the America,s annual meeting in Miami, FL; teach-ins and briefings around the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in Washington, DC; and countless other local and regional U.S. union events.

In addition to STITCH's strong partnership and participation in specific events with the U.S. and international labor movement, the organization also works with a broad range of allies in the U.S. including, the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), International Labor
Rights Fund (ILRF), New York Civic Participation Project, U.S./Labor Educators in the Americas Project (US/LEAP), United Students Against Sweatshops, United Methodist Women, Unitarian Service Committee and Unitarian Universalists. STITCH also builds bridges between the labor movement and the women's movement by reaching out to
women?s groups, such as the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Delegations to Central America — The best way to learn a language is through experience. STITCH runs week-long programs for women activists to study Spanish and meet labor and human rights activists in Guatemala. Click here to read Voices from Central America: Behind the Trade Agreements by a recent STITCH delegation participant! Also, click here for more information about our upcoming delegations to Central America.

Documentation Project — To understand the full impact of the globalization of the economy, workers voices must be heard. STITCH has launched a project to document the experiences of women organizing in export industries in Central America. STITCH has published two extensive collections of interviews of women workers, click here for more information on Pushing Back: Women Workers Respond to Trade or Women Behind the Labels: Worker Testimonies from Central America. In addition, STITCH will be publishing a collection of interviews in early 2007, highlighting the life and struggles of Latina, immigrants in the U.S. Stay tuned for more information!

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