On March 31, April 1 and 4, the Breakout Sessions take place with two rounds of sessions each day - five at a time. The sessions are thematically based on seven tracks. The sessions' programme can be found below. You can decide which sessions you are interested in. No further registration for the sessions is necessary.

 

The 7 tracks are the following:

1. More Inclusive Social Protection and Sustainable Development (Panels: 1, 6, 15, 16, 22 and 26)

2. Ending Gender-Based Violence and Racism in the Workplace (Panels: 2 and 7)

3. Just Transition and Worker Organizing (Panels: 14, 17 and 30)

4. Organizing Across the Platform: Innovative Strategies for Building Worker Power (Panels: 3, 8, 11 and 21)

5. Migrant Labour (Panels: 9 and 27)

6. Workers' Rights and Organizing under Authoritarianism (Panels: 4, 10, 12, 23 and 29)

7. Global Supply Chains, Industrial Policy and Embedded Research (Panel: 5 - 13 - 19 - 25 and 28).
 

Special Sessions: Essential Workers (Panel 15), Organizing in the US South (Panel 18), and Organizing in the Informal Economy (Panel 20).
 

All Zoom links and the corresponding dial-in data/passwords are available in the Programme and Breakout Sessions sections of this website.

Time Difference

- Please note that all indicated times correspond to Central European Summer Time [CEST] -

For Eastern Standard Summer Time [EST] deduct 6 hours, for Brasília Time [BRT] deduct 5 hours, for India Standard Time [IST] add 3.5 hours. For South Africa Standard Time [SAST], there is no time difference to CEST.

March 31, 14:30 - 16:15 (CEST)

Panel 1 - Universal Social Protection (Track 1)

Chair:  Chidi King

Presenters:

  • Luis Mendoza, “The universal social pension as a tool towards a more just and sustainable future in Peru”

  • Etsri Homevoh, “Trade Union Advocacy for Minimum Social Protection for All”

  • Aarohi Damle, “Social Security for Women Workers in India's Informal Economy”

  • Edwin Anisha, "Precarious Employment, Weak Social Protection and the Crisis of Livelihoods in the Context of a Pandemic"

Panel 2 - Gender Based Violence in the Workplace (Track 2)

Chair:Robin Runge

Presenters:

  • Sophie Chitenje, “Ending Gender Based Violence, Harassment and Workplace Violence:Case Study of Tea Estates in Malawi”

  • Bashiratu Kamal, “Sexual harassment and Gender-based violence in the era of COVID-19 in Ghana: Are Laws Enough?”

  • Lygia Fares, Ana Luiza Matos de Oliveira, and Lilian Nogueira Rolim, “Who cares? Gender, unpaid domestic and care work in Brazil during the pandemic”

  • Maureen Kalume, “Towards a Safe Working Environment Free from Sexual Harassment in Kenya”

Panel 3 - Varieties of worker representation and collective action in the location-based platform economy (Track 4)

Chair: Edlira Xhafa

Presenters:

  • Melisa Serrano, “Emerging typologies of worker representation and collective action in the location-based platform economy: Findings from the GLU alumni case studies”
     
  • Nurus Mufidah and Indah Budiarti, “Organizing Grab Drivers and Riders in Indonesia”
     
  • Tilak Jang Khadka, “Working conditions and collective representation of Pathao and Tootle platform riders in Nepal”
     
  • Jacqueline Wamai, “Uber drivers’ organizing in Kenya: Challenges and initial successes”
     
  • Muttaqa Yushau, “Collective representation of Uber and Bolt drivers in Nigeria”
     
  • Svetlana Kolganova, “Organizing Yandex Taxi drivers in Russia: Outcomes and challenges”

Panel 4 - cancelled

Panel 5 - Roundtable: ‘Build back better’ vs. ‘always building’: the role of transport workers organizations in the health and safety struggle (Track 7)

Co-Chairs: Sara Cufre and Anne Engelhardt

Presenters:

  • Sara Cufre, CEIL-CONICET

  • Anne Engelhardt, Kassel University

  • Dina Feller, LATAM ITF Network

  • Patricia Gilbert, International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations, IFATCA EVP Americas

  • Fatima Queiroz, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP)

  • Fabrizio Barcellona, International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF)

Break 16:15 - 16:45 CEST

March 31, 16:45 - 18:30 (CEST)

Panel 6 – Authors Meet Critics: Revaluing Work(ers): Toward a Democratic and Sustainable Future (Track 1)

Chair:Katherine Maich, School of Labor and Employment Relations, Penn State

Authors:

  • Tobias Schulze-Cleven, School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University
  • Todd E. Vachon, School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University

Critics:

  • Rose Batt, Cornell ILR
  • Alexander Gallas, Kassel University
  • Meghna Mahadevan, New Currents Collective
  • Dimitris Stevis, Colorado State University

Panel 7 - Building transformative, inclusive workers movements (Track 2)

Chair:Sheri Davis, Rutgers University

Presenters:

  • Jinyoung Park, “’We Need Competition, Not Solidarity’: Experiences of the Korean Women Workers’ Movement

  • Varsha Ayyar, “No Justice, No Peace: Dr. B.R. Ambedkar's Annihilation of Caste as Global Workers, Feminist, And Anti-Fascist Manifesto”

Panel 8 - Platform Worker Organizing in Latin America During the Pandemic (Track 4)

Chair: Paolo Marinaro

Presenters:

  • Kruskaya Hidalgo Cordero, “Gender and migration. The self-organization strategies of delivery platform workers in Ecuador”
  • Oscar Javier Maldonado and Derly Yohanna Sanchez Vargas, “Technolegal Expulsions: Platform food delivery workers and Work Regulations in Colombia”

  • Karol Morales and Alejandra Dinegro, “Self-organization among delivery platforms workers in neoliberal Latin American countries. The cases of Peru and Chile”

  • Rodolfo Elbert and Sofia Negri, “Delivery platform workers during COVID-19 pandemic in the city of Buenos Aires (Argentina): deepened precarity and workers’ response in a context of epidemiological crisis”

  • Paolo Marinaro, “COVID-19 and Food Delivery Worker Transnational Organizing in Latin America”

Panel 9 – Migrant Labor (Track 5)

Chair: Nicolas Pons Vignon

Discussant: Shannon Lederer, AFL-CIO

Presenters:

  • Marija Mitrevska, “The Eastern European periphery feeding the Western European centres: The horrifying conditions of the seasonal migrant agricultural workers in Germany revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic”

  • Kathrin Birner and Stefan Dietl, “Pandemic effects on a toxic system: The situation of hyper-mobile migrant workers in Germany”

  • Adam (Chuling) Huang, “Fractured Governance: A Study of How the Local Government Manage International Migration in China”

  • Vitor Filgueiras, “Labour movements and migrant workers building solidarity beyond capital”

Panel 10 - How to build workplace and political democracy in non-democracies? The Case of Myanmar, Hong Kong, China, the Philippines, and Cambodia (Track 6)

Chair: Verna Viajar, University of the Philippines

Presenters:

  • Khaing Zar, the Workers Federation of Myanmar (IWFM)

  • Ramon Certeza, National Coordinator at IndustriALL Global Union, Philippines

  • Mung Siu Tat, former Chief Executive, Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU)

  • Elaine Huiand Kaye Liang, Penn State University

  • Veasna Nuon, APHEDA, Cambodia

April 1st, 14:30 - 16:15 (CEST)

Panel 11 - Platform capitalism: a double-edged sword? A perspective from Africa (Track 4)

Chair: Shane Choshane

Presenters:

  • Shane Choshane, “Emerging patterns of representation in the platform economy: an African perspective”

  • Fikile Masikane, “Food Couriers in South Africa”

  • Agnes Mwongera, “Food Couriers in Kenya”

  • Nqobile Tshezi, “Organizing across the platform: Innovative strategies for building worker power”

  • Karim Saagbul, “Organising Platform Workers for Decent Work: The Case of Ride-Hailing and Food Delivery Workers in Ghana”

Panel 12 - Workers' rights and organizing under authoritarianism (Track 6)

Chair: Frank Hoffer

Presenters:

  • Jana Silverman and Laura Moisa, “The Political Economy of Labor Relations Regimes under 21st Century Neo-Authoritarian Governments – A Comparative Study of Brazil and Colombia”

  • Lizaveta Merliak, Independent Trade Union of Miners and Chemical Workers, Belarus, "Trade Unions, a suppressed protest movement and a desperate dictator”

  • Kiril Buketov, International Union of Foodworkers (IUF), Geneva, “Putin oppressor at home, aggressor abroad –  what options for trade unions?”

  • Can Kaya, EPSU, Brussels, “Autocratic rule facing multiple crisis and growing opposition”

  • Thomas Franco, Bank Workers Union, India, “Mass strikes and protest against market liberal Hindu athoritarianism.”

Panel 13 – Roundtable: Strategic Organizing: Transforming Shared Experiences into Praxis How unions in the US and Europe are organizing and winning for their members in the face of sophisticated resistance (Track 7)

Chair: Steven Toff

Presenters:

  • Steven Toff – European Organizing Center, former organizing coordinator

  • Andrea Staples, Director, European Organizing Center

  • Ben Norman – Unite the Union

  • Cihan Ugura – FNV, Organizing Coordinator

  • Aslak Haarahiltunen – Finnish Industrial Union, Organizing Director

  • John Burant - European Organizing Center [tentative]

Panel 14 - Just Transitions into Sustainable Industries (Track 3)

Chair: Jeremy Anderson

Presenters:

  • Manuel Rosaldo, “A Muffed Transition? How São Paulo’s Street Waste Pickers Became Excluded from “Just Transition” Policies”

  • Benjamin Velasco, “An Action Research on Just Transition for Jeepney Operators and Delivery Riders in the Philippines”

  • Mark Hagen and Ahmed Kamel, “Just Transition: Organizing for Climate Justice”

  • Sara Cufre and Alejandra Soifer, “Urban recyclers in the pathway towards ‘green jobs’: the case of Buenos Aires”

Panel 15: Open Society Foundation - Special Panel on Essential Workers (No Track)

Chair:Cindy Berman, Labour Specialist

Panelists:

  • Marina Durano, Advisor for the Care Economy, UNI Care Global Union, “Increased income and improved working conditions: The care economy and improving working conditions in the paid care sector”
     
  • Josephine Parilla, a home-based worker in the Philippines and Regional Coordinator for HomeNet South East Asia
     
  • Shirley Pryce, President of Jamaica Household Workers’ Union (JHWU) and Executive Committee Member of the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF), “An end to sexual harassment and violence at work: The recent Violence and Harassment Bill in Jamaica”
     
  • Ruth Castle Branco, Researcher (IDWF affiliate), “Healthy and safe workplaces and access to healthcare: The COVID-19 Impact Survey in the Africa region”
     
  • Lorraine Ndlovu, President of StreetNet International, “Social protection benefits and support for vulnerable workers: The response of StreetNet and its affiliates to COVID-19”

Break 16:15 - 16:45 CEST

April 1st, 16:45 - 18:30 (CEST)

Panel 16 – Trade Union responses and successes to protect workers during the pandemic (Track 1)

Chair: Baba Aye

Presenters:

  • Alberto Riesco-Sanz, “Protecting workers’ rights in the boundaries of wage employment: bogus self-employment and worker cooperatives in the Spanish meat industry”

  • Thorsten Schulten and Johannes Specht, “Labour Relations in the German Meat Industry - From Erosion to Re-Organisation?”

Panel 17 – Visions for sustainable economies and societies (Track 3)

Chair: Mirko Herberg

Presenters:

  • Markus Wissen, “Just = less + different Workers and social movements in the transition of (auto)mobility”

  • Devan Pillay, “Decent Work or Decent Life? In search of an ecosocialist working class politics”

  • Antonella Angelini, “Participatory Guarantee Systems as a Tool for Worker and Climate Justice: The Experience of Fuorimercato”

  • Jeremy Anderson, “ITF Maritime Initiative”

Panel 18 – Union organizing in the US South. The international dimension (Special Session)

Moderator:  Virginia Doellgast, Cornell University

Presentation:"Organizing German Corporations in the US South. The IG Metall experience"

Presenters:

  • Horst Mund,International Department, IG Metall
  • Carsten Hübner, Former Director, Transatlantic Labor Institute

Commentaries:

  • Mitchell Smith, UAW, Director Region 8
  • Tim Beaty, International Department, International Brotherhood of Teamsters     
  • Georg Leutert, Global Director, Automotive and Aerospace Industries, IndustriALL

Panel 19 – Global Supply Chains, Corporations, and the Challenge of Development (Track 7)

Chair: Praveen Jha, JNU University, New Delhi

Presenters:

  • Christina Teipen and Fabian Mehl, Berlin School of Economics and Law, “Challenges for Employees and Interest Representation in Reaction to COVID-19 Responses in the German, Indian and Brazilian Automotive and IT Services Sector”

  • Gifford Hartman, “Supply Chain Inquiries and Chokepoints Workshop”

  • Mariana Garcia, “Brazil’s strategies to face the new wave of technological advances: potential impact on industry and the labour market”

  • Daniel Oberko, PSI, “Towards workers perspective to the fight for Tax justice”

  • Hansjoerg Herr and Petra Duenhaupt, Berlin School of Economics and Law, “Why Global Value Chains are not a Panacea for Development”

Panel 20 – Workers Organizing in the Informal Economy (Special Session)

Chair:Karin Pape

Presenters:

  • Chris Bonner, Jane Barrett, and Janhavi Dave, “Launching a global network of HBWs during the pandemic: challenges & opportunities”

  • Clair Ruppert and Laura Morillo Santa Cruz, “Trade Union Challenges in Organizing and Representing Informal Workers”

  • Ozge Berber Agtas and Saniye Dedeoglu, “Homeworkers in Turkey: Home Bounded, Global Outreach”

April 4th, 14:30 - 16:15 (CEST)

Panel 21 – Union Organizing in the Platform Economy (Track 4)

Chair: Alex Wood

Presenters:

  • Vivek Kumar, “Unionization Strategies for Gig/platform workers' Unions: Case studies from India”

  • Emily Paulin, “Transport and Delivery Workers’ Organizing Strategies: Case Studies in Ukraine, Nigeria, Thailand and Mexico”

  • Cheng Li, “Employee recognition by Uber: independent contractor, employee, or worker in between?”

  • James Lazou, “Harnessing the knowledge of multitudes - a data led approach to building Union power”

  • Brian Dolber, “Building Solidarity: Start-Up Unionism and Platform Organizing”

  • Robert Ovetz and Ali Kashani, “Workers’ Inquiry and Credible Strike Threats in the Universities”

Panel 22 – Struggles and Structural Power Imbalances (Track 1)

Chair: Joel Odigie

Presenters:

  • Vincent DeLaurentis and Penelope Kyritsis, “Structural Debt, Structuring Labor: Discipline & Despair in Global Supply Chains”

  • Shaka Bob, “Does South Africa's looting and social unrest demonstrate the need for an inclusive social protection model: Covid-19 and its impact on household social and economic outcomes”

  • Jafar Iqbal, “Encountering Pandeconomics and Workers Repression: Alternative Pathways to Labour Resistance and Supply Chain Governance”

  • Muttaqa Abdulra’uf, “Decent Work, Inequality and the Treatment of Labour Market Institutions by the IMF & World Bank”

Panel 23 – The Post-Pandemic and social inequalities: Paths forward, limits and possibilities (Track 6)

Chair: Magda Barros Biavaschi, Visiting Lecturer at the Wits Mining Institute

Presenters:

  • Antonio Aravena, “The labor world, labor reforms, pandemic and measures to address it in Chile”

  • Marcia de Paula Leite, “The ongoing reforms and its impacts in the labor world, women's lives, and collective bargaining amid the rise in inequality - Brasil”

  • Andrea Del Bono, “The labor world, labor reforms, pandemic and measures to address it in Argentina”

  • Carlos Salas, “Capitalism and social inequalities. The pandemic and its further development. Measures to address it and its impacts – Mexico”

  • Barbara Vallejos Vasquez, tbd

  • Jo Portilho, “Brazilian domestic workers under Bolsonaro´s time - back to the past”

Panel 24 – Struggle for a new social contract by informal workers - Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (Track 1)

Chair:Janet Munakamwe

Presenters:

  • Laura Alfers, Rhodes University and WIEGO, “Worker power and the struggle for social protection”
     
  • Salonie Hiriyur Muralidhara, Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), “Worker cooperatives harnessing digital platforms in India”
     
  • Marty Chen, Harvard University and WIEGO, “The bad old contract, the even worse contract, and a better new social contract for informal workers in a Covid-19 world.”

Panel 25 – Union-Led Legal Strategies for Reshaping Employment Relationships for a Just Future of Work in the Global Economy (Track 7)

Chair and Discussant: JJ Rosenbaum

Panelists:

  • Dev Nathan, Institute for Human Development, “Extraction and control in garment supply chains”
     
  • Sahiba Gill, GLJ-ILRF -  “Joint Employer Liability in Supply Chains - Legal Challenges and Opportunities”
     
  • Wira Ginting, Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA) - “Union-Led Litigation for Joint Employer Liability in Fashion Supply Chains in Asia”

Break 16:15 - 16:45 CEST

April 4th, 16:45 - 18:30 (CEST)

Panel 26 – Protection Despite Informality (Track 1)

Chair:  Gbenga Komolafe

Presenters:

  • Kavita Chohan, “Fair Trial: A Study On Issues And Challenges In Accessing Justice”

  • Crispen Chinguno, “Work and Covid 19 pandemic regulatory responses in the global south”

  • Tine Hanrieder, “Reimbursing community health workers: from “return on investment” to community investment”

  • Mercy Nabwire, “The Power Resources Approach: Organizing Precarious Workers in the Kenyan Health Sector”

  • Janet Munakamwe, “Unions’ inclusionary and exclusionary organising strategies in a post-covid epoch: Revisiting the social security debate in South Africa.”

Panel 27 - Migrant Workers in Healthcare: A Comparison of Trade Union Involvement (Track 5)

Chairs: Nicolas Pons Vignon and Mostafa Henaway

Presenters:

    • Adrian Durtschi, "Organizing Migrant Workers: Experiences, Challenges and Open Questions in the Long Term Care Sector"

    • Jason Schneck, "Challenges and Opportunites for Organizing Migrant Care Workers in Switzerland"

    • Sherif Olanrewaju, “Migrant Nurses Experiences Working in the U.S: Implications for Union Organizing and Patient Outcomes”

    Panel 28 – Roundtable: Responding to Crisis by Demanding New Solutions: Enforceable Workers’ Rights Agreements in Garment Supply Chains (Track 7)

    Chair  and Moderator: Jess Champagne, Worker Rights Consortium

    Presenters:

    • Kalpona Akter, Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity

    • Penelope Kyritsis, The New School

    • Mark Anner, Center for Global Workers’ Rights, Penn State University

    • Scott Nova, Workers Rights Consortium

    • Theresa Haas,  Workers United

    Panel 29 – Labour Organisations and the fight for Economic and Social Justice in Authoritarian Contexts: Contemporary Examples from Africa (Track 6)

    Chair: Claire Ceruti

    Panelists:

    • Mark McQuinn, “Labour Organisations and the fight for Economic and Social Justice in Authoritarian Contexts: Contemporary Examples from Africa”

    • Rwatirinda Mahembe, “The Rise of Authoritarianism in 21st Century Africa and its Imminent Self-Destruction”

    • Moreblessing Nyambara, “Trade Unionism in an Authoritarian State: Are Trade Unions Relevant under Authoritarian Regimes? The Case of Zimbabwe”

    • Fundizwi Sikhondze, TBD

    Panel 30 – Labour’s Ecological Question: Voices from the Ground (Track 3)

    Chair: Edlira Xhafa

    Panelists:

    • Luis Mendoza and Sara Cufre,The environmental crisis: How is this a working-class issue?”
    • Nicolas Fernandez Bravo and Aishah Namukasa,“Varieties of just transition: concepts and practices"
    • Gifford Hartman and Mametlwe Sabei, “Just transition: disagreements and divisions”
    • Safiya Gibson and Thuonghien Dong, “Main lessons and take-aways by the trainers"
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