From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

3 POVERTY AND WEALTH THE CHANGING WORLD OF WORKThe situation of women workers in global industries is a battlegroundbetween competing visions of economic development, withconsequences for all workers and for the fight against inequality andpoverty. One vision recognises caring work as a vital component ofeconomies and affirms the responsibilities of the state and employersto contribute ‘employment benefits’ and taxes as investments in maintaininga healthy, trained, and productive workforce. The opposingvision ignores the caring economy and treats as ‘savings’ and ‘efficiency’company or government policies to shed the costs of workers’ health,leave time, incapacity, or old age.Although the latter vision ignores the costs of maintaining ahealthy society, these do not go away. They shift to workers, withwomen paying the highest price through their unpaid caring labourand their low wages. Women are ground down by long hours, lowwages, and anxiety, and such ‘indecent work’ fails even to guaranteesufficient food on the table.For years, ILO conventions and the welfare state promoted sharedresponsibility for such costs, divided between the state, the privatesector, and the worker. Replacing welfare state policies (and tradeunion aspirations) based on rights with an exclusive emphasis onresponsibilities (for example, the responsibility of workers to providetheir own support for unpaid caring costs) undermines both workers’lives and the capacity of growth to generate decent jobs, transformlives, and galvanise economies.To ensure that hard-won labour rights are not swept away, but areextended to women and others in the new economy, will requireinnovative and dynamic organisation, backed by effective andaccountable states. It is a huge test for the labour movement, thewomen’s movement, and enlightened business leaders. Globally,organisations such as the UN and the ILO can play an influential role,as can consumers and retailers. At the very least, the outside worldmust help, not hinder, the struggle for workers’ basic rights.167