WFTU Statement on Working Women’s Day

8 March 1857 – 8 March 2022: 165 years later

World Federation of Trade Unions | March 04, 2022

165 years ago, when the women workers in the New York textile mills, on March 8, 1857, went on strike and demonstrated for “ten-hour work, bright and sanitary workrooms, wages equal to those of male textile workers and tailors”, they certainly did not imagine that in 2022 all these demands would still be demanded.

165 years ago, they certainly did not imagine that in 2022, with such advances in science and technology, in the conditions of the so-called 4th Industrial Revolution, women’s work would lead to flexible work hours, with split schedule and irregular working hours, underemployment, employment even during maternity leave thanks to teleworking and the development of computing.

165 years ago, striking workers could not have imagined that underage girls and boys would still be victims of sexual harassment, with decision-makers and politicians “shuddering” in horror at the revelations of the “me too” movement, while often being themselves involved in such scandals.

She, we… on the road to equality

In Cuba, we are fortunate to be part of a social project in which women have been protagonists and beneficiaries of the transformations achieved

Yeilén Delgado Calvo

Granma | March 08, 2022

There is no single type of woman or Cuban woman. We are millions of dissimilar beings, each one deserving of all rights. Photo: Ariel Cecilio Lemus

The challenge anyone can try on social media seems simple: Put your name in the Google search engine, or that of your sister, your mother or your daughter and, next to it, the word “found.” The result is in no way simple, but rather terrifying. It is enough to press a key to come across a list of horrors, the result of male violence.
The search leaves no room for doubt: being born female involves many dangers, greater or lesser ones depending on the region or country where you were born, and also many challenges to overcome in the pursuit of equality.

Celebrating International Women’s Day

Ana Santoyo

 New York City protest. Liberation photo: Joyce Chediac.

Originally published in Breaking the Chains magazine.
For over a hundred years, women and progressive people have celebrated working women’s right to rebel and the many wins our rebellion has secured. International Women’s Day, March 8, is a day to celebrate the powerful force of our participation and gains won by our movements, the movements of the multinational, multi-gender working class. IWD has and is organized to highlight the struggle for women’s economic, social, and political achievements and to continue the struggle for full equality. 

South Korea: After 12 Years of Protests, Women Workers Get ‘Dream Jobs’ Back

Labor Notes | August 02, 2018

After 12 years of campaigning against unjust layoffs, 180 female attendants at South Korea’s premier train service are getting their jobs back, having defeated a ham-handed privatization effort and corrupt political collusion. Photo: Labor and the World

After 12 years of campaigns and protests against unjust layoffs, 180 female attendants at South Korea’s premier train service are getting their jobs back. These tenacious women workers defeated a ham-handed privatization effort and corrupt political collusion.

The KTX is South Korea’s answer to bullet trains. The country’s Railroad Administration launched it in 2004 and selected 351 female attendants, all in their twenties, from a pool of 4,600 applicants who dreamed of becoming “flight attendants on the ground.”