Verrett was met with music, chanting, and support from delegates from 82 unions across 34 African and Arab nations - as she mounted the podium.

Her powerful address drew on her own past and the links between workers across borders, outlining how unions must build global solidarity to fightback against corporate power and the far-right.

Read the full speech below.

Good morning, my friends. 

I want to begin by acknowledging the tremendous honor it is to be here — on the continent of Africa — and to thank the people of Ghana for your warmth, your hospitality, and your example of perseverance and pride. 

Yesterday, His Excellency, John Dramani Mahama, the President of Ghana, opened this convening with words that captured the power and the promise of this moment. His participation is not just a gesture — it is a statement. It reminds us that the fight for worker dignity and democracy is not peripheral to national progress; it is at the very heart of it. 

I also want to thank Public Services International President Britta Lejon and its General Secretary, Daniel Bertossa for convening this gathering — and for their steadfast leadership in bringing together trade unionists from across this continent and around the world. Thank you, Danny and Britta. 

To be here among leaders and workers representing more than 40 African nations is profoundly humbling. Each of you carries the story of your people — the struggle, the resilience, and the hope that keeps this movement alive. 

And for me, standing here — as a Black woman, as the President of the Service Employees International Union, and as a descendant of those who were stolen from this soil generations ago — this moment carries a sacred weight. 

Day before yesterday I traveled to the Cape Coast castles and stood before the Door of No Return. 

Standing in that space, I felt the ache of history in my bones and in my heart. I thought about the lives taken from this place, the families torn apart, the labour that built the wealth of the world — and the resilience that refuses to die.  

And I thought about what it means to come back. To stand where my ancestors once stood — not in chains, but in purpose. To bring their story full circle. 

That is why I am here. That is why SEIU is here. 

To honour their legacy by continuing the fight they began — the fight for dignity, the fight for freedom, and the fight for justice. 

Because when you stand at that threshold, you begin to understand something profound: 

The very same forces that built wealth from our suffering centuries ago are alive today in different forms. They exploit workers. They privatise what belongs to the public. They extract from the many to enrich the few. 

In this moment, I am very clear, crystal clear: the new colonizers are not foreign governments, but multinational corporations. 

They don’t send armies — they send agreements. 

They move across borders through trade deals and mergers, not ships and soldiers. 

They promise efficiency and innovation, but what they deliver is inequality and extraction. 

The very same billionaires cutting jobs in Seattle are outsourcing jobs in Nairobi, the ones that are profiting from healthcare in Lagos are privatising water here in Accra. 

They are global. And so, we must be global too. Because our fights are bound together.   

When a nurse in South Africa demands fair pay… when a teacher in Kenya demands safe classrooms… when a janitor in Chicago demands a living wage… we are all demanding the very same thing — respect. 

And that demand is not radical. That demand is righteous 

At SEIU, we have learned that we cannot win justice for some workers while others are left behind. That’s why we passed a resolution — Dignity for All Workers. Not just for American workers. Not just for union members. But for every person whose labour turns the world. 

Because until all workers are free — none of us are free.    

But friends, we are living in perilous times. 

Across the globe, power is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. 

In too many countries, the voices of working people are being pushed out of public life. 

Unions are restricted by new laws. Journalists are harassed for telling just the truth. 

Public servants — our teachers, nurses, sanitation workers — are punished for daring to organize. 

Instead of governments standing with workers, many are bending to the influence of global elites and foreign investors. 

Public institutions that once protected people are now being reshaped to serve private interests.    

Budgets are written not by those who deliver public services, but by those who profit from them. 

And across continents, we see the very same pattern: the erosion of democracy not through tanks and violence, but through agreements, policies, and quiet decisions made behind closed doors. 

This is the new face of control — power exercised without accountability, and wealth without responsibility. 

Corporations play their part, too. Global consulting firms advise governments on how to cut costs — which always seems to mean cutting people. 

Private equity firms buy up hospitals and facilities, promising efficiency but delivering layoffs, low wages, and higher prices. 

Public services — the very backbone of a nation’s dignity — are being sold off piece by piece. 

This is how modern fascism works: not only through violence and fear, but through the quiet corruption of the public good.   

A hospital in Monrovia becomes a profit center for investors in Beijing. A water system in Uganda turns into a corporate asset traded on Wall Street. A housing project in Los Angeles gets stripped for parts while families sleep on the streets.    

None of this happens by accident. It is the same blueprint, replicated across borders — an economic system that values profit over people, and power over participation. 

That is the moral test of our time. 

Will we allow a handful of billionaires and strongmen to decide who gets care, who gets clean water, who gets a future? 

Or will we, the workers of the world, stand together and say no more? 

Because make no mistake — authoritarianism and corporate greed are coordinated globally. 

Our solidarity must be as well.    

SEIU is proud to stand with PSI in this global struggle — not just in words, but in action. 

Across Africa, we are building real partnerships that strengthen worker power. 

In Tanzania, we are working alongside PSI and our union siblings in TUGHE, TUICO, and TALGHU — organizing public sector workers, expanding access to quality healthcare, and defending public services from the constant threat of privatisation. 

In Kenya, we are united with the militant Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union — whose courage and clarity in the fight for healthcare workers’ rights inspire us all. 

Together, we are expanding access to care, ensuring fair treatment for frontline workers, and protecting essential services from being sold off to corporate interests. 

These partnerships are proof that solidarity is not an idea — it is a practice. 

We learn from one another. We strategize together. And we build collective power that no border can contain. 

And that power — that solidarity — doesn’t just live in institutions or practices. 

It lives in people. 

It moves through families, across oceans, and within generations. 

The same workers organizing in Dar es Salaam or Nairobi are connected to the nurses and janitors organizing in Boston and San Francisco. 

Our partnerships are mirrored in the very lives of our members — proof that our movement is not just international, it is interpersonal.   

And when I look at this movement, I see the same shared story reflected in our members.    

In the United States, thousands of SEIU members trace their roots to this continent — to Ghana, to Nigeria, to Liberia. They are nurses, home care workers, janitors, and bus drivers. They care for the sick, clean our cities, and keep our communities alive. 

Their journey tells a truth that policymakers often ignore: our economies are already connected. Our struggles are already intertwined. 

But we must ensure that migration is not another form of exploitation. The wealth of Africa — its people, its labor, its brilliance — must not be drained by the same forces that once stole its gold and its children. 

The goal is not just to move people across borders; it’s to move power across borders — back into the hands of the people who create the wealth of nations.   

And so, my friends, if we are to meet this moment — if we are to move from pain to power, from history to hope — we must act. 

Let me offer five steps we must take together to build true global worker power. 

First, we must build cross-border solidarity strategies. 

We must connect our fights across countries and continents — sharing organizing tools, legal tactics, and collective bargaining victories. Let’s build networks that allow a worker in Los Angeles to learn from a teacher in Lusaka, a nurse in Accra, a sanitation worker in Nairobi. When we move in coordination, we move in power….  

Second, we must defend and expand public services. 

Public services are the backbone of any just society — schools, hospitals, transportation, and sanitation. These are the institutions that make democracy real. Our mission is to protect them from corporate erosion and strengthen them for the people they serve. 

Third, we must confront and defeat privatisation. 

We are witnessing a new form of colonization — corporations taking control of what belongs to the people. We must shine light on these practices, expose how wealth is extracted, and mobilize to keep essential services public, accountable, and people-centered. 

Fourth, we must demand government investment in people. Governments must tax wealth fairly and redirect those resources into social services, healthcare, infrastructure, and worker training. The moral measure of any nation is how it invests in its people — not how it shelters the profits of the rich….  

And finally, we must center and empower African worker leadership.  

The liberation of African workers must be led by African workers. SEIU and our partners across the globe are here to walk beside you, not ahead of you. We will invest in local leadership, in indigenous organizing, and in creating platforms where African workers define your own strategies and your own futures.   

I believe this is the work our ancestors dreamed of. 

When I stood at the Door of No Return, I realized something powerful: 

I am their return. We are their return. 

We are the ones they prayed for — the ones who could finish what they began. 

And if we have the courage to stand together — across oceans and borders — to build a world rooted in dignity, justice, and care… then the chains that once bound us will become the links that unite us. 

So let us go forward — to fight for dignity, to defend democracy, and to deliver justice for every worker, everywhere. 

Because when we fight together, we win together. 

And when we love one another enough to fight for each other — there is nothing in this world that can stop us. 

Thank you, Ghana. 

Thank you, Africa. 

Thank you, PSI.  

Let's make history – together. 

LET's GO GET IT!