Health Workers of Liberia win Global Labour Prize

The award will help support the union's organising efforts in Liberia, where health workers have faced first the Ebola outbreak and now the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, within the context of a brutally underfunded and understaffed health system.

General Secretary of Industri Energi union, which coordinates the prize, said “We have huge admiration for the courage of you and your union George - you are defenders of human rights and labour rights."

At a packed award ceremony in Oslo, Williams told attendees that “this prize is a message to all health workers every year who have faced the toughest years of our working lives. We have had enough of the applause. Now it's time for action."

PSI General Secretary Rosa Pavenelli said “We thank the trade union movement of Norway which is a strong supporter of labour solidarity across the world."

Williams made headlines earlier this month after travelling to the World Economic Forum in Davos to confront Pharma CEOs on the need to end deadly monopolies on Covid vaccines which have prevented the scaling up of global production.

Watch the ceremony

Read the full speech delivered by Williams:

Greetings from the leadership and members of the National Health Workers` Union of Liberia (NAHWUL),

It is my absolute pleasure to be with you all tonight to accept this award on behalf of my union and the health workforce of my country. Solidarity!

My journey as a health worker – and our journey as a union began many years ago.

For too long, health workers in my country and around the world have been taken for granted. Understaffing has put an unbearable burden on our shoulders. Underfunding of the health sector has left us without the resources we need to protect our communities and save lives.

When I first entered the health sector as a nurse, I realised very quickly that there was only one way that we could improve the situation for us and our patients – through organising.

I’m sure that this story is very familiar to so many of you here in the audience. Despite our differences across nations and around the world we are united by a common understanding. 

We know that it is us, the workers of the world, who make this world work! We know that nothing is ever given to us –that progress is only won through struggles. And we know that when we organise, when we build our power– we win.

Nursing is in my blood. Growing up I remember watching my aunt serve people as a nurse. When the civil war arrived, I realised the vital importance of tending to those in need, to provide a service to my loved ones, to improve the material conditions for my fellow citizens.

But as it was, the health system would simply not allow me to do my job properly. I was not the only one who felt this way.  

This was why in 2007 I got together with colleagues to fight for Liberia’s first union for health workers. Our early demands were clear. More employment in the health sector.

Fairer conditions of work so that our best people wouldn’t leave the country, and we could all live in dignity.

 And better resourcing so that we could do our job safely – after all, only safe workers can save lives.

Yet very early on, we understood that growing our power was a challenge to those in power.

We were told that as public sector workers, we had no right to unionise.  

No right to unionise? How could this be?

As the Oldest African Independent Democratic Republic since 1847, Liberia is a founding member of both the International labour organisation and the United Nations. Our constitution clearly outlines the fundamental right to freely associate in terms of religion, politics and even form and join trade unions of our choosing.

Liberia is the first and perhaps, the only nation which has a Decent Work Art (DWA) fashioned in the likeness of the ILO decent work agenda. 

Yet during the development of this Decent Work Act, the Government sneakily excluded those working in civil service from being covered.  

This means that we health workers – along with teachers and other public service workers - are currently legally prevented from unionising. 

We cannot even become affiliates of our national labour centre.

This dangerous exclusion of public sector workers from basic labour rights is a breach of international labour norms. Yet it is unfortunately far too common across the world. To this day only 57 countries have ratified Convention 151 of the ILO which assures public workers the right to form a union. Norway has ratified this vital convention. Liberia still has not.

That is why we have been working with the National Teachers` Association of Liberia (NTAL) and the Civil Society and Trade Union Institutions (CTIL) to win the right to unionise as public sector workers, through an update to the Decent Work Act.

This legal fight has been a difficult struggle. But nothing could have prepared us for the bigger storm on the horizon.

It began in a small village in the remote part of my country. An elderly woman came down with a severe fever. Coughing up blood, dehydration, diarrhoea. The first responders who arrived were unaware of the severe danger, unequipped to deal with the situation. They were among the earliest cases of the deadly Ebola outbreak which tore through my country.

The months that followed were the hardest of my life.

Imagine working in an underfunded, understaffed hospital facing a devastating disease outbreak.

Imagine being forced to make impossible choices about who to treat and who to let die. 

Imagine coming home to your family, knowing you might be putting them at risk.

Imagine, nearly one in ten of your colleagues violently dying.

This was the toll which Ebola took on us health workers of Liberia. Sick health workers don’t save lives. Dead health workers don’t save lives. 

The government was sending us into the firing line with no protection. Our union knew we had to act. 

We fought tooth and nail for personal protective equipment for workers – yet chronic underfunding meant the resources needed simply weren’t available. We engaged in global advocacy, calling on governments to send vital supplies. 

Through our Global Union Federation Public Services International, we received huge solidarity and support from other unions across the world, including Kommunal in Sweden.

Yet the government reacted to our demands for safer conditions with hostility.

Myself and twenty one other union activists were dismissed from the health service. This led to outcry across the country – and twenty of us were reinstated.

But I and fellow union leader Joseph Tamba were kept out of re-employment. We were targeted because of our leadership in organising workers. The government thought that by getting rid of us, they could stop our movement. They were wrong.

For four years, we were jobless, yet we continued to organise. Our union grew. As we slowly recovered from the Ebola Epidemic, we succeeded in increasing the resouricing of our health system. More ambulances, triage centres, better protection. Our lobbying for hazard pay for our members and benefits for lost health workers were successful. 

We shared our learnings from the crisis with other unions across the world. In the UK, I warned our colleagues at UNISON of how their government’s austerity plans would undermine frontline workers. In the USA we received the welcome support of the major SEIU union and we lobbied the IMF and World Bank to end loan conditionalities which undermine public service spending. We took our case all the way to the International Labour Conference of the ILO in Geneva where the committee on freedom of association examined our case. 

Then finally in 2018 myself and my colleague Joseph tamba were reinstated to our jobs in the health service. 

This wasn’t just a victory for us and our families. It was a victory for our global movement. It showed the power of cross border solidarity. It showed the strength which we have when we work together. 

We hoped that by sharing the brutal lessons we learned from the Ebola epidemic, we could help other countries be better prepared for future crises. Our Safe Workers Save Lives campaign developed in 2018 through PSI, called on governments to increase funding and make sure that when public health emergencies arise workers are not sacrificed in the fight.

Sadly again, the Covid-19 pandemic has shown that our warnings have not been heeded by governments. We health workers are not heroes. And we should not have to become martyrs on the job. We are professionals. We need personal protective equipment so we can stay healthy while saving lives. 

We need adequately staffed and well-resourced public health systems. We need strong government funding for our sector. Fractured, profit-driven health systems are simply unable to effectively respond to crises such as Ebola or coronavirus. 

The only way we can protect against future outbreaks is through strong government-driven public health response – best achieved through universal public healthcare. Health for all. Now!

The sad reality is far too often, profits are put ahead of people.  Just this week the World Trade Organisation is meeting to discuss the need for global cooperation on making vaccines accessible – and making patents for lifesaving drugs public. Ebola showed that these things cannot be left to the market. 90% of research and development funding for the covid vaccines has come from public sources. 

It’s time to treat these vaccines as public goods, to be used in the public interest. Yet today, while people across Europe are getting their third or fourth doses, fewer than a third of us Liberians have had their first rounds. A few wealthy countries are still listening to the pharma lobby and preventing the sharing of vaccine patents which has slowed the global supply. It is outrageous that more than two years since this pandemic started, the EU Commision, Germany, the UK and – I’m sorry to say it – Norway have been putting pharmaceutical profits ahead of people's lives. 

The World Health Organisation, the global labour movement and more than 100 countries have been calling for a WTO TRIPS Waiver which would break down barriers to production. If we can’t pass this waiver now, then what good is the WTO as an international institution. We need it to learn the lessons of global solidarity and finally put peoples lives first.

Despite all these challenges, our struggle as a health workers union continues to move forward. In 2018 we welcomed a delegation of unionists from around the world to Liberia. This delegation led by PSI General Secretary Rosa Pavanelli met with the Liberian Chief Medical Officer and both houses of parliament`s committees on health and labour. 

This helped improve social dialogue and the Minister of HEalth finally promised us that we would be given union certification.. However, after a year the government failed to implement any of its promises and so we engaged in industrial action including a strike.  For this action, I was pinpointed as ringleader and blacklisted, despite the fact that at the time I was in Germany taking part in the Global Labour University program in Germany completing my studies. Since then I have not been able to return home due to the alert I received from back home concerning the security threat on my life.

My colleagues have faced the state police, set upon  peaceful protesters to quell dissent. We union leaders have been  incarcerated and denounced as dangerous dissidents. I have faced personal intimidation. I have been told that government agents have been looking for me. I have faced threats. I am currently living in exile in west Africa. Yet I know where my home is. My home is in Liberia. My home is with my union.

I do not yet know when it will be safe for me to return. But I want you to know that this prize for the National Union of Liberian Health Workers sends a strong and clear message. It tells us workers that our plight is not being ignored. It tells the Liberian government that they better not mess with our labour movement. 

Comrades, I never met Artur Svensson but I know I share with him a common understanding. 

We understand that an injustice done to one is an injustice done to all. I want you to know that this prize isn’t just about me or my union. It is a message to all of us health workers everywhere who have faced the toughest years of our working lives. 

And who, far too often, have made the ultimate sacrifice for our work. Please join me for a moment of silence in loving memory of the over 180,000 health and care workers who lost their lives while trying to save the lives of others through this pandemic.

Comrades, this award tells the world that it’s time to finally listen to the voices of we health workers. We have had enough of the applause. It’s time for action.

We all know another world is possible. A world based on solidarity.  A world where unions are free to improve the lives of all working people. A world where collective bargaining and healthcare are treated as fundamental rights, assured to us all. I want to thank you for this award which, in a small way, makes that better world seem a little bit closer.

We will use this award to build a strong organising project, to curb the fear of unionisation by the workers fostered by the government. 

We will conduct robust training and organising and prepare for generational change that will build labour power . We will create awareness within the working class, to include the formal and informal sectors within our union. We will grow our alliances with like-minded trade unions and civil society organisations.

For this we are ready, but this we cannot do alone. It will require continued solidarity from far and near, especially for the long term. To this we are open for partnership, and for this we invite well-wishers to join the fight for trade union rights in Liberia. We wish to thank PSI for her unwavering support to this struggle over the years and for nominating us for this award.  A special thanks to Rosa, Leo and Marcelo in this regard.

Thank you to the Arthur Svensson award committee for considering us worthy of this Noble Prize. To the Health workers of Liberia, the unsung heroes and heroines who are never considered worthy of anything by our employers, I salute you. For today, your resilience to serve your people under difficult circumstances has been recognized.

Permit me to end on this note, that I dedicate my own share of this great award to my wife, my son, my daughter, and my mom, and a sister turned mother:

Phebe Dianue Williams (wife)

Joseph Purtell Williams (son)

Regina Purtell Williams  (daughter)

Sarah Yeabaa Cooper (mother)

Regina Marie Purtell (the sister who and her family provided me the opportunity to earn my first degree).

 The first four individuals I have deprived the right of my presence in these difficult years when I have committed all my life to the union I so cherish and to the work of advocacy which for me is a religion.

And for the final word, I would like us all to say it together. The word which gives us all our strength. The word which makes all our struggles possible.

Comrades, say it with me

Solidarity

Solidarity

Solidarity