From the Arab uprisings to the international recognition of the rights of domestic workers, 2011 was a turning point for millions of workers around the globe. The AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center, whose mission is to support workers in building independent trade unions around the world, partnered with workers and their unions as they organized for better working conditions, greater social protections, more fair labor laws and increased democracy and equity in their countries.

In its just-released 2011 Annual Report, the Solidarity Center shows how its staff in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas partnered with workers and their unions organizing for better working conditions and for the fundamental rights denied to them.

Here are a few highlights.

This is a cross-post from the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center.

Asia is facing an onslaught of work-related deaths and diseases. Of the 2.2 million people who die each year all over the world as a result of work-related accidents or illness, 1.1 million are Asian. Yet the problem of workplace health and safety and its victims remain invisible, according to a new report released today in commemoration of Workers Memorial Day by the Asia Monitor Resource Centre (AMRC), a Solidarity Center partner.