Building Collective Power

How is WIEGO Helping?

• Supporting Democratic Governance

  Collective voice and organization are pre-conditions for worker organizations to assert their position as negotiating partners – so WIEGO supports workers to build strong, democratic membership-based organizations led by workers, especially women. WIEGO develops worker education training and materials to foster democratic governance.

  Related Resources

  • Resource The Only School We Have: Learning from Organizing Experiences Across the Informal Economy Read More
  • Resource Recruiting Informal Workers Into Democratic Workers’ Organisations (ICC1) Read More
  • Resource Building and Maintaining a Democratic Organisation of Informal Workers (ICC2) Read More

• Collective Bargaining for Workers in Informal Employment

  Workers in informal employment and their organizations engage in collective bargaining, but their negotiating counterparts may be different to a traditional employer. WIEGO documents good practices of collective bargaining and provides training to workers’ organizations to prepare them for negotiations with local or national authorities, buyers or other counterparts.

  Related Resources

  • Publication From ‘Battles’ to Collective Agreements Between Street Vendors and Local Authorities in Zimbabwe – WIEGO Organizing Brief No. 17 Read More
  • Publication Collective Bargaining by Informal Workers in the Global South: Where and How It Takes Place Read More
  • Resource Collective Negotiations for Informal Workers (ICC4) Read More

• Documenting Strategies from the SSE & Cooperatives

  The Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) is a way of organizing work so that human well-being, democratic and participatory decision-making and collective ownership are centred. WIEGO researches how organizations of workers in informal employment use the SSE and cooperatives to improve their social and economic situation and to promote decent work for their members.

  Related Resources

  • Post Q&A with WIEGO Social and Solidarity Economy Specialist Federico Parra Read More

• Documenting Worker Victories

  We conduct participatory research alongside worker organizations to document worker victories and good practices in organizing and other strategies to improve working conditions, such as formalization processes.

• Worker Education through the WIEGO School

  WIEGO develops worker education training and materials for worker leaders and organizers through the WIEGO School, which includes worker education as part of the curriculum.

• Building Relationships/Alliances with the Trade Union and Cooperative Movement

  Fostering working-class solidarity so that workers in informal employment are seen in a similar way to workers within factories in earlier times.

  Related Resources

  • Resource Report on challenges faced by trade unions in organizing and representing workers in informal employment Read More