7 September, 2009
Global labour’s World Day for Decent Work next month will reveal a wide swath of economic, social, and gender neglect that assails millions of workers, but nowhere is that neglect as evident anywhere as it is to contract and agency workers. The ICEM, in unity with several other Global Union Federations (GUFs) and the Council of Global Unions, will use the day – 7 October, and indeed, the days before and after – to highlight the need to bring respectability and work rights to contract and agency workers.
As part of ICEM’s ongoing Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) Campaign, we are cooperating with other GUFs and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) to call on affiliated trade unions and their members to participate actively in events in their countries. The ITUC is continually updating a website that lists events country by country. It can be found here.
The ITUC has produced a Campaign Guide for World Day for Decent Work, which can be found at that site, complete with ideas for actions, media events, and providing literature for worksites. The ICEM’s CAL Campaign site contains the ICEM's CAL manual and other useful tools.
In addition, the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) has produced material on Precarious Work for this years' 7 October, which can be used by all, as all Global Union Federations, as well as the ITUC, signed of on it. The booklet, entitled, “Precarious Work Affects Us All”, as well as the poster can be, along with other materials for 7 October, found on the IMF's campaign site.
The global economic collapse over the past year has adversely affected most workers in nearly all sectors. But none more so than workers on the fringes of society, workers who live and toil in the shadows of humanity in conditions that will never be termed decent. Equal rights and equal treatment for temporary and agency workers is a prerequisite for a fair and just way of life for all.
Workers’ representatives from throughout the world will speak in a unified voice in the days leading up to and following 7 October. That voice will call for a new globalisation that includes stable and quality jobs, better social protections, assurances that every worker has the right to form and join a trade union, to bargain collectively for the betterment of all, and most especially, a voice aimed at lifting the lowest among us to better and sustainable livelihoods.
The ICEM encourages everyone to take part in activities around the Global Day of Action for Decent Work.