From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

3 POVERTY AND WEALTH THE CHANGING WORLD OF WORKunion has won victories over protective clothing, access to toilets inthe fields, equal pay for equal work, maternity leave, and respect forminimum daily wages. 124Even the rag-pickers of Nashik in India are organising. A localNGO, Lokvikas Samajik Sanstha (LVSS), is supporting the rag-pickersto form a union and gain access to health care, legal support, healthinsurance, ration cards, education, vocational training, and recreationalfacilities, and is encouraging them to open bank accountsto save money for emergencies. The rag-pickers have also persuadedNashik Municipal Council to issue them with photo identity cards,which identify them as legitimate waste collectors, give them access tofree medical treatment, help reduce harassment and abuse, andincrease personal dignity. The women have even taken over the officialrole of municipal rubbish collection in some residential areas, whichhas provided them with increased job security, income, and safety, andthe residents with a better service.There have been other victories for workers’ rights in recent years.In 2003, after a 15-year struggle, domestic workers in South Africawere finally brought under the Unemployment Insurance Act coveringemployed workers, while in Ghana in the same year, the New LabourAct allowed temporary and casual workers to benefit from collectiveagreements, access to the same medical services as permanent workers,and equal pay for work of equal value. 125Given the rise in women’s employment and entrenched attitudesin the labour movement, women’s organisations such as India’s SelfEmployed Women’s Association (SEWA) have also come to play anessential role, capitalising on their experience in popular communications,community organising, and their links with academics andinternational networks. In Nicaragua, the María Elena CuadraMovement of Employed and Unemployed Women (MEC), establishedin 1994, works through community-based rather than workplacebasedgroups, with 2,000 volunteers reaching out to women in workand at home. MEC helped to win the country’s first National Healthand Safety Law in 2007, as well as increased site inspections in exportprocessingzone factories to ensure compliance with health and safetylegislation, and human rights training for mid-level private sectormanagers. 126161