Photo: Vatican Media Screenshot
Discussions at the 2021 ILO Conference have obviously been impacted by the global Covid pandemic. Items set on the agenda before the outbreak, such as “Inequalities” or “Social Protection,” became even more urgent, and it was necessary to call globally for action for a human-centered recovery.
The ILO Director General’s report showed the serious impact of the pandemic on the loss of jobs and the increase in inequalities, such as inequalities based on age, gender, and wealth. The IYCW took part in that discussion and commented on the topic, with statements read by Cecilia from the YCW Americas Team and by Basma from the YCW African Team.
In this 2021 Conference, Pope Francis addressed the ILO urging the organization and its members to continue to exercise “special care” for the common good, stating, “The time has come to eliminate inequalities, to cure the injustice that is undermining the health of the entire human family.”
The Young Christian Workers (YCW) was born and developed in Spain throughout the 20th century, as in so many other countries. Because of its youth, worker and Christian character, it was always deeply marked by all the contradictions, fears and hopes of those turbulent times. On the one hand, it was rooted in the Spanish Catholic tradition, recognizable not only in its religious dimension, but also in its very relevant social, political and cultural role. On the other hand, it faced without complex the profound changes and the new realities and challenges that were constantly emerging from the workers' struggles.
This double condition placed it, during all this time, in a difficult state of equilibrium, nevertheless very creative and deeply innovative: it always wanted to be and was, without renunciation or concessions, part of the worker movement and part of the Church. This self-taught and non-formal militancy read reality through the eyes of the history of the worker movement and its struggles against exploitation, and through the eyes of a liberating Gospel, whose reference is the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
Brussels (IYCW News) - COMECE, the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the EU, invites young people to design a future for the EU that matches their dreams, in line with Pope Francis’ message for Europe.
A series of 3 online events was held on 3, 10 and 17 June 2021. ‘Our Dream of Europe’, a convention of the Catholic Youth, brought together over 100 young Catholics, mainly delegated by the Bishops’ Conferences of the EU and by the COMECE Youth Platform. Together, and throughout a series of webinars, they reflected and formulated concrete proposals on three main thematic areas: Just Social Recovery, Ecological and Digital Transitions, and Democracy and European values.
Carolin Moch, European Coordinator of Young Christian Workers, was one of the presenters. In her presentation, Caro underlined the things that the labour movement in Europe has done with regard to youth employment, education and skills in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.
Brussels (IYCW News) - KAB Deutschland in collaboration with JOC Europe, the European Christian Workers Movement (ECWM) and other faith-based workers’ organizations, held a virtual webinar, a discussion based on the ILO Addendum to the 2020 General Survey on promoting employment and decent work in a changing landscape, on May 27, 2021.
ECWM President Olinda Marques opened the session, saying that together we do better and can reflect on the very important question of promoting employment and decent work in a changing landscape.
IYCW President Sarah Prenger made a comment on the ILO addendum. She emphasized the enormous impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on young workers and jobs.
"The pandemic is affecting young people in different ways: disrupted education; difficulty in finding work and re-entering the labor market; reduced earnings; and deteriorating conditions of work. Precarious jobs are on the rise,” said Sarah. To meet the challenges, Sarah placed the accent on the need to strengthen social protection, health care and education, and to ensure infrastructure improvement. "Care" activities also need to be recognized as work with legal status, wages and protection.
Brussels (IYCW News) – At least fifty-eight people have been killed by police and dozens of others have gone missing since the outbreak of social unrest in Colombia last April 28, 2021. Riots have occurred in various cities at the expense of young workers, women, peasants, fishermen and the urban poor. Police and soldiers have brutally fought the demonstrators in downtown streets.
Colombia is a country that has had a succession of neoliberal governments, which for decades have been implementing a series of anti-people reforms and laws in the areas of health, education, social security and labour, supported by a strong military and police system.
The government's latest attempt at fiscal reform, the cynicism of the ultra-right imposing their neoliberal measures, unleashed a massive popular rebellion, highlighting the structural crisis that the country is going through and the failure of this model on the continent. The government's response to demonstrations has been more than distressing: armed repression, human rights violations, disappearances of social leaders, sexual abuses and real urban massacres in different regions of the country.
Brussels (IYCW News) – In the midst of the cries and screams of millions of contract workers who have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the IYCW continues to speak out to the world at the International Labour Conference which has been taking place virtually at the ILO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
Ana Cecilia Salazar, a leader of the YCW Americas Team, took the floor at the labour conference bringing her lament about the fate of a contract worker from Peru who lost her job due to the pandemic. "I had a temporary contract. When the lockdown was decreed, the company suspended the work. The contract will end and there will be 50 of us young people jobless," Ana read aloud as she shared the testimony of the Peruvian contract worker.
Contract workers are the most vulnerable workers and the first to be fired when the company has to terminate the employment relationship. In her statement, which was read from Peru, Ana emphasized that the phenomenon of easy layoffs for contract workers occurs in almost all countries and has affected millions of contract workers worldwide. This form of work, as well as all forms of precarious and informal work related to online platforms, is increasing even more in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Brussels (IYCW News) – Basma Doka Louis, the African YCW coordinator, read a statement at the International Labour Conference (ILC) addressing one of the main topics in the conference in the social protection committee - A recurrent discussion on the strategic objective of social protection (social security), under the follow-up to the ILO Declaration on social Justice for a Fair Globalization.
In her statement, she emphasized that young workers need to feel valued by living a recognized life. The full implementation of ILO convention 102 and recommendation N. 202 is crucial in order to guarantee a just social protection system for all.
Basma also shared the testimony of a restaurant worker in Australia who was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic: “I was working in the restaurant as a cook. When Covid hit and the government provided a form of crisis social security payment, I was not eligible for it and the business let me go. I had to depend on charity events for food and groceries. It impacted my mental health.” The statement was read out from Egypt in a virtual ILC.
- The Impact of Covid-19 on Young Workers: an analysis by the International YCW
- YCW-Info 2018
- IYCW Press Release for the International Workers’ Day 2024: Let’s Call for Unity, Let's Call for Resistance!
- Let's be the Change for a World with Equity and Equality ! [Vídeo]
- Corporate Accountability In Global Value Chains Now: We Need Climate Justice And Respect For Human Rights!
- International Migrants Day 2023
- International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women: For a Future Where all Women Live Free from Fear and Violence
- The IYCW at UNESCO: Let’s Build a Peaceful Future for the New Generations
- Pakistan YCW Is Calling for Support: Help Needed for Jaranwala's Christian Community
- The IYCW Calls for Social Justice that will Guarantee a Life with Dignity for All
- May 1st: Young Workers Demand Work, Justice and Equality for a Dignified Life
- Future Opportunities and Challenges for the Social and Solidarity Economy
- Young women workers are still struggling for equality, equity and dignity!
- International Conference of NGOs at UNESCO: The IYCW Calls for Empowering Programs for the Youth
- Statement of the Civil Society Organizations that attended the International Labour Conference
- November 13, 1882: 140th anniversary of the birth of Cardijn who, through the IYCW, keeps the flame of hope alive in the hearts of millions of young people
- “Called to Act for Just Work”
- The Economy of Francesco Global Event: Encounter, Bridges, Harvest, and Building a Better Economy Together
- The YCW in Venezuela: Facing the Crisis, Young Workers Fight, United, in Solidarity and Strong
- Massive Flash Floods Hit a Third of Pakistan