Equal Pay Day stands for the gender pay gap between women and men, which according to the Federal Statistical Office is 21 percent in Germany. This large pay gap means that women work for free until 18 March, i.e. 77 days, while men have been paid for their work since 1 January. Thus, the gross hourly wage for men is 4.41 euros more than for women. Germany lies thereby in the European comparison far behind. Positive examples in Europe are Romania, Italy and Belgium, which have gender pay gaps of less than 7 percent.
CAJ women see a huge problem here and do not want to accept this: Jasmin is angry when someone says that the pay gap doesn't even exist if more women work full-time or if they go less into social professions. She wonders why it is still the case that social activities are so badly paid.
‘We are all workers, we all have the right to organize into a union’
What is your role in your national movement?
I am an activist in the Guatemala YCW coordination team. We are a small team of activists coordinating the activities of the groups.
What are the main activities of the Guatemala YCW presently?
Our priorities are the personal actions carried out at our workplaces. In addition, we are working at extending the movement. We are now in an investigation and initiation process in another two cities and we are following up new base groups which have been set up in the metropolitan area of Guatemala City (the capital).
What is your personal experience of action?
I have almost always worked for the government. There is a problem of flexibilization there. They give work contracts that enable them to reduce the workers’ rights. In my last job in a human rights institution, most workers did not have access to established labor rights. It was a human rights institution, so there was a huge contradiction there!
The election year was approaching and in Guatemala, a change of government usually leads to a change of the whole personnel in public institutions. We were therefore faced with the threat of dismissal and we knew that a military government might return to power. We finally decided to form a trade union with 3 objectives.
“I Have No Direct Contract and My Life is Insecure!”
After finishing high school, I studied Business Administration and finished with a Bachelor’s degree. I searched for a job for about half a year and every time my applications were rejected, the reason was: "You have no working experience" or "We are primarily looking for people with more work experience" ... Even in positions that were advertised for new entrants they kept saying, " We have found someone with more experience ".
Long story short, I got a job from a temporary work agency. I am working in the purchasing department of a big company which isn’t far away from home. But this job doesn’t require academic studies. My salary corresponds approximately to that of the people directly hired by the company for the same position, but those people are working together with a Buyer while I am working alone.
In the company I feel warmly welcomed – most colleagues do not even know that I am employed through a temporary work agency. I get the same discounts as the employees hired directly by the company – for example a discount in the canteen. I really like the work and the colleagues.
The forum of the Pacific Island Civil Society Consultation on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration is a response by civil society stakeholders strongly endorsing dignity for safe, orderly and regular migration into and from the Pacific Region. The said regional consultation was organized in Fiji from November 2 to 3, 2017, by leading civil society organizations such as the Migrant Forum in Asia, Justice and Peace, Sydney Asia Pacific Migration Center and others. The Asia Pacific International Young Christian Workers movement was represented by Nanang Ibrahim.
The forum gathered representatives from non-governmental organizations, youth movements, trade unions, educational institutions, the business sector, and other individuals who deliberated the key issues on human rights and good governance relating to the implementation process of the UN Global Compact on Migration.
“Terminus Interim. Stop the train of interim-abuses." This was the title of the public activity organized by KAJ (Flanders YCW) in Ostende with the presence of leaders from different regions. The aim of the event was to denounce the reality and violence suffered by young people who are seeking for jobs in temporary work agencies and see their dreams and expectations vanish into thin air.
Most of those young people have just graduated from secondary school or university, they are drop-outs, or have low skills, and they turn to temporary work agencies to help them find a job. In many cases, they face difficulties when they have to deal with the agencies, and KAJ wants to draw the attention of the society, the political authorities, the trade unions and the temporary work agencies themselves. They have reached the local and national press to explain their objectives and present the reality of young workers. KAJ carried out a survey, asking several young people about their reality, and it started to organize actions, including the June 2 event.
The IYCW International Secretariat participated in the action in Ostende. Arlindo de Oliveira (the international treasurer) was there and collected some testimonies from young people explaining their main problems.
Young Workers Under Pressure
Riensje, a KAJ regional coordinator, and other young activists responsible for the activity in Ostende said: “People who leave school have difficulty in finding a job. They feel pressure. First of all from the agencies when they say you don't have the skills to work for them. So you go back home but when you get there sometimes your family doesn’t believe you and say you are not looking for a job, or just like the agencies they question your capacities. It definitively doesn't help us, it doesn't motivate us.”
Discrimination and racism on the part of the police, repression of people’s movements, migrants hunting, tracking down of homeless people, widespread filing of personal records… It is most urgent to get organized and denounce the security logic. The Stop Repression campaign has been mobilizing against police violence and state repression for eight years now. We hope many of you will join us in the streets of Charleroi on March 15 for the International Day Against Police Violence!
Stop repression of migrations!
Subject to a repression organized at the highest levels of the state, the only crime of refugees and undocumented people is to look for a better future. They are arrested with brutality and placed in closed centers pending deportation. Closed centers are real prisons, and detention conditions are so bad that some migrants attempt to take their own life. Nowadays, even families with children can end up in a closed center. Nobody is spared by those racist security measures taken by the authorities.
Solidarity is also criminalized: legal proceedings against people who host them, violence against citizens who legally film arbitrary arrests. Migrants hunting is carried out to the detriment of mankind, the rule of law and solidarity among peoples. It sometimes ends up in a tragic bloodshed, like on 17 May 2018 when a police officer, still free today, killed little Mawda. To give itself the tools to implement its inhuman policies, the current government decided to build three new centers, including one in Wallonia, in Jumet. Faced with the state’s headlong rush, let’s demand the closure of all closed centers, the regularization of all undocumented people, and the freedom of movement for migrants.
- Details
Today is 8th March, the International Women's Day. This day reminds us of the long history of the struggle for women's rights which has been carried out until today. It reminds us especially of the demand for women’s suffrage, one of the demands brought forward in several countries as this special day historically evolved into a collective, international symbol.
“I was born in an indigenous community in Guatemala and my parents had to migrate to the capital city. I had to start working at the age of 14 to put myself through school. I have worked for two years at Coransa, a textile maquila (which later changed its name to Denimatrix), in the laundry section where I have a production target of 2,500 trousers that need to be revised to ensure they have no defects. Through the continuous process of education and action of YCW Guatemala we have seen the high level of exploitation and the workers’ rights being trampled on; they have long working hours and unpaid overtime. When I first started, the company had 3,200 workers, it currently has 1,800 and the company has used mass dismissals. – Nadia (YCW Guatemala)
- Young Christian Workers Raise their Voice, Not Only On Women’s Day!
- Salt for Dignity through Solidarity - YCW Haiti’s action presented
- What Work ‘Lies’ Ahead?
- Guatemala YCW: The Long Hard Day of a Young Woman Worker
- ASPAC Message: : "Young Workers Demand a Decent Living Income"
- The Bicycle Rally of the India YCW
- Cooperation between IYCW and WSM
- YCW Egypt struggles against sexual harrassment
- Every Challenge Provides an Opportunity
- Leave no young women workers behind: End gender-based discrimination at work and in the society! End all forms of violence!
- Young Christian Workers in Egypt redefined Their Future Life and Work
- ILC 2017: IYCW & WSM Joint Statement on Labour Migration
- International Domestic Workers’ Day: A Testimony from Pakistan
- Migrant Workers: The Voice of an Overseas Filipino Worker
- PANAF: Taking part in the Development of South-South Regional Cooperation
- Young Workers March to Berlin on May Day Celebration
- March 15, 2017: “Just Work, not Bullets”
- The challenge of the digital revolution - The IYCW at the 2016 International Conference of NGOs
- “Reshaping the Future of Work in the midst of Digitalization, Precarity and Unemployment: Action and Commitment of Young Workers”