On International Workers Day, WIEGO and allied organizations called for an urgent shift in the world of work, informed by a feminist labour justice agenda.
The joint statement from Global Labor Justice, IDWF, WIEGO, and Working Horizons calls for labour institutions to be rebuilt with frontline workers’ needs at the center, and for economic and corporate power to be accountable to workers and their communities.
It also calls for care, social protection and public infrastructure to be considered central economic issues, and for the labour, feminist, climate and human rights movements to connect, so that they are better able to act together, even where perspectives differ.
The signatories state this urgent shift is critical in an environment where authoritarianism is on the rise and funding is being cut to institutions that enable worker organizing and rights-based progress.
A critical feminist labour justice agenda prioritizes workers’ ability to bargain collectively, participate in decision-making spaces, and to influence the organizations that represent them.
The joint statement is informed by the perspectives of nearly 100 representatives from trade unions, informal worker and labour support organizations, feminist advocates and philanthropy from around the world.
They were in attendance at the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) to advocate for a path forward to ensure workers and their communities have access to social, economic and political justice during this time of historic disruption.