Six global apparel brands took the unusual and welcome step this week of publicly calling on a government to improve its labor laws.  

In their March 4 letter to Peruvian President Ollanta Humala Tasso, New Balance, Nike, PVH Corp. and three other brands said that current labor law that allows maquilas (apparel and other exporters) to use short-term contracts undermines worker rights and the ability of these companies to ensure compliance with their codes of conduct.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Trade and Labor Affairs (OTLA) has issued a report on the 2010 SINAUT-SUNAT submission under the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that represents the resolution of the first case under the so-called “May 10” agreement—an agreement that raised the bar for labor obligations in U.S. FTAs. The U.S.-Peru FTA was the first to require parties to “adopt and maintain in its statutes and regulations, and practices thereunder,” the rights stated in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-Up, including the right of collective bargaining.

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.