PHM-Exch> [PHM NEWS] May Day statement

[Claudio Schuftan]

TRADUCIR/TRADUIRE deepl.com

From: Sarojini N <sarojini_n at phmovement.org>

International Workers’ Day: Day of Solidarity
/ 30 April 2024 / 0 Comments
<https://phmovement.org/international-workers-day-day-solidarity/#comments>

Statement by Gender Justice and Health Thematic Circle, People’s Health
Movement (PHM)


As we commemorate International Workers' Day this week, the Gender Justice
and Health Thematic Circle of the People’s Health Movement (PHM), reflects
on how women’s work, particularly that of the most marginalized,
racialized, gender non-binary people, and those living with disabilities,
continues to be undervalued and invisibilized.

Women and gender non-binary persons are concentrated in the most precarious
forms of labour such as women workers in agriculture and mining, sex
workers, migrant workers, women workers in factories, gig workers, and
domestic workers, frontline workers to name a few.

Through class, race, caste, gender identity, gender expression, disability,
ethnicity, migratory and refugee status, and amid widening structural
inequality and intersecting economic, social, and climate crises, women and
gender non-binary workers are facing discrimination, social stigma, poor
access to healthcare, physical and sexual abuse, a lack of fair wages, a
lack of legal protection, a lack of social security and protection measures
against exposure to chemicals and health crises, growing labour
exploitation and repression by way of corporate union-busting, state
authoritarianism, and the use of labour-displacing.

Despite making up 70% of the health workforce across health systems, women
and gender non-binary persons only hold 25% of leadership roles.
Importantly, this includes the majority of community health workers who are
women volunteers or in the lowest-paid roles; they often work in unsafe
conditions and readily pay out-of-pocket for their materials and equipment,
despite being essential for the reorientation of health systems towards
people-centred primary health care. Women health workers have tremendous
potential to contribute to the realization of the goal of health for all.
However, they face multiple challenges, including systemic and policy-level
resistance, which are often rooted in gender power relations.

Finally, women, in particular, play an important role within the care
economy for their work in social reproduction, as mothers, wives,
caregivers, and domestic partners provide unpaid and undervalued labour in
addition to their paid work while accumulating additional health costs.

The crisis of systemic violence demands greater accountability, gender
justice, and fair policy and state responses. There is a pressing need for
more public voices, demands, and solidarity to address these issues.

We call for:

   - Legal and political recognition of all forms of informal or precarious
   work for people of all genders, including improved pay, safe working
   conditions, and the provision of social and legal protection, as a pathway
   to improved health, well-being, and dignity.
   - A radical redress of gender inequity in the health workforce,
   including the provision of pay and benefits packages for community health
   workers who are critical for upholding the right to health for all in their
   communities,
   - The rolling back of gender-discriminatory labour and social policies
   that consign the burden of unpaid caregiving work to women.
   - Democratized, decommodified, deprivatised and publicly-funded health
   systems that can meet the needs of the world’s working class.
   - An increase in women’s participation in the economy towards their
   human and labour rights.


Long live International Workers Day!
Long live International Feminist Solidarity!
#LabourDay #MayDay

Here are the links for language versions of the Statement

   1. https://phmovement.org/international-workers-day-day-solidarity
   2.
   https://phmovement.org/ar/ywm-almal-alalmy-byan-ywm-altdamn-mn-mjmwt-aldalt-aljnsanyt-walsht-lhrkt-sht-alshwb
   3.
   https://phmovement.org/es/dia-internacional-de-los-trabajadores-jornada-de-solidaridad
   4. https://phmovement.org/fr/international-workers-day-solidarity
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