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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Worker's Rights Are Women's Rights |
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by AFL-CIO
(No verified email address) |
12 Mar 2002
Modified: 06:38:48 PM |
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Women make up 45 percent of the world's workforce. Yet women account for 70 percent of the world's population living in poverty. |
Women make up 45 percent of the world's workforce. Yet women account for 70 percent of the world's population living in poverty.
Women in developing countries work an average of 60 to 90 hours per week.
Worldwide, women earn an average of 75 percent of men's pay in nonagricultural work.
Ninety percent of the 27 million workers in export processing zones are women, most of them between the ages of 16 and 25. EPZs are tax-free industrial areas for foreign companies in which labor laws often are suspended and workers unprotected.
When working women and men in the United States try to gain a voice at work by forming a union, in 50 percent of the cases employers threaten to close the plant.
Some 1,545 trade unionists throughout the world were tortured or jailed last year for fighting for workers' rights. One hundred forty were murdered.
Around the world, some 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 go to work, half of them full-time.
Two women speak from different places with common concerns:
"I started working at Global Fashion when I was 13 years old. We were forced to work, almost every day, from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sometimes they kept us all night long, working until 6:30 a.m.
"Working all these hours, I made-at most-240 lempiras a week, which I am told is about $2.61 U.S. No one can survive on these wages.
"The plant is like an oven. They keep the bathroom locked, and you need permission-and can only use it twice a day.
"Most of the girls are afraid. They fired a number [of workers] and said they would fire all of us if we tried to organize."
-Wendy Diaz, Honduran textile worker
Mary Fleure lost two jobs in three years when the plants at which she worked shut down or moved production overseas. "When my plant closed, thoughts I had for the future were crushed," she says. "My blood pressure was sky-high. Due to the stress, I got illnesses that I never had before. My family was really concerned...
"...They were afraid I was going to have a heart attack or a stroke."
-Mary Fleure, U.S. Worker Working Women
In the United States, women like Mary Fleure are working longer hours to make ends meet. Wealth inequality has reached levels not seen since the 1920s-and women workers are worried about their future.
Companies are turning to women-and girls-like Wendy Diaz to cut their labor costs and increase their profits. Like Wendy in Honduras, most women throughout the world are relegated to low-skilled, low-wage jobs. Their work often is dangerous. And women are likely to face such "invisible" threats on the job as discrimination, sexual harassment, physical abuse and pregnancy exams as a condition of work.
The global economy isn't working for Wendy Diaz or Mary Fleure or for millions of working women like them around the world.
The global economy makes it possible for companies to chase the lowest wages and highest profits, regardless of the consequences for people and communities. Without rules to protect basic rights-such as the freedom of association and an end to discrimination and child labor-working women are denied the opportunity to feed their families and contribute to their communities.
In 10 years, 80 percent of all women in industrialized countries and 70 percent of all women globally will work outside of the home. We need rules for the global economy that work for working families.
***Core Workers' Rights***
In a world in which so many women work for pay, women's rights depend on core workers' rights. You can't have one without the other.
The International Labor Organization, made up of representatives of government, business and labor from 175 counties, has defined core workers' rights:
*To organize and bargain collectively
*To refuse forced labor
*To reject child labor
*To work free from discrimination.
Throughout the world, more and more women are taking their future into their own hands and have joined unions, advocacy groups and women's organizations to fight repressive laws and raise standards for women workers. In the AFL-CIO alone, women members are now 5.5 million strong, and the numbers are growing. Two out of three new union members are women.
Through organizing, bargaining and legislative and political activism, unions help in such women's fights as for equal pay, paid family leave, job security and family health care.
Women's organizations support workers' rights by demanding that companies, the U.S. government and international financial institutions adopt and enforce core workers' rights.
***Get Active***
What you can do to fight for workers' rights/women's rights:
*Be a consumer activist. Write letters to stores where you buy many of your goods to ask them if they support workers' rights in the factories where their products are made.
*Post it. Core workers' rights are the right of everyone. Ask your employer, the stores where you shop and the companies you invest in to post the ILO core workers' rights in every workplace, here and abroad.
*Wear it with pride. Find out where your work uniforms are produced. Urge your employer to purchase uniforms made by companies that respect human and workers' rights. Ask your city government where its uniforms and other goods are produced.
*Wield dollar power. Find out how your employer-provided pension funds are invested. Urge your pension fund manager to invest in companies that respect human and workers' rights.
*Use your vote. Press legislators to ratify and enforce workers' rights laws. Write or phone your legislators to learn about their position on workers' rights and trade issues.
*Get the word out. Educate your union, congregation, neighbors and co-workers about the need to improve women workers' rights. Encourage others to get involved.
*Participate! Contact the AFL-CIO Working Women's Department to find out more about getting active and to join networks of activists fighting for human rights, workers' rights and a voice at work.
Write to:
AFL-CIO Working Women's Department
815 16th St., N.W
Washington, D.C. 20006
or call 202-637-5064. |
See also:
http://www.aflcio.org/women/workers_rights.htm
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