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!
Other
Information:
Alerts
Publications
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