Posts by Judy Gearhart, International Labor Rights Forum

Remembering Mom in a Time of Resistance

May 4, 2017

Originally published in Huffington Post

This Mother’s Day, it is 50 weeks and three days that I am living without a mother, missing her every single day and so grateful for the drive and fight she instilled in me to demand an equal voice for myself and for all women. As the daughter of immigrants – a home-based seamstress and a coal miner who plied his trade as a stone mason on the weekends – my mother committed every waking moment to making our world better than she had it.

An Ocean Of Pink Hats: Sustaining The Momentum Of The March

January 27, 2017

Originally published on Huffington Post.

The passing of Mary Tyler Moore, the unwitting feminist icon of 1970s working women, is a poignant reminder that sustaining the momentum of the Women’s March will require something Mary captured so well — that special mix of humor and chutzpah, essential to expanding acceptance of new cultural norms. The pink hats that dotted the crowds were a good start on capturing that mix.

Just being immersed in a twenty-square block ocean of pink hats atop the heads of upbeat, determined women and their supporters buoyed my soul!

Trump’s Pro-Worker Rhetoric: Reality or Ruse?

December 21, 2016
Trump pic

Donald Trump campaigned on his opposition to free trade agreements, such as the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but his rhetoric should not distract voters’ attention away from the ways in which he and many of his business and political allies have undermined workers’ rights.

Remembering Rana Plaza, Advancing Women Workers’ Rights in Global Supply Chains

April 27, 2016

This week marks three years since the most horrific tragedy in the history of the global apparel industry - the collapse of the Rana Plaza factories in Bangladesh that killed 1,134 workers and caused hundreds of others to lose a limb or suffer long-term injuries.

TPP Ignores Workers' Needs and Fails to Address Weaknesses from Past Trade Agreements

November 12, 2015

The text of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) finally became accessible to workers and the public last week, though insiders from more than 500 major companies have had access to the negotiation and writing process for years. The result predictably values the rights of corporations over the needs of workers and fails to address the most glaring weakness of past trade deals: the utter failure of the parties to uphold their commitments to respect workers' rights.

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