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By National Secretary-Treasurer Lana Payne and Women's Department Director Tracey Ramsey
This International Women's Day as we mark two years of this pandemic in Canada, it may be difficult to imagine that we have much to celebrate given the devastation of this crisis including on working women.
Yet throughout these two years, women have defied plenty of odds. They did not give up their fight for gender and racial justice in this country. They refused to be bent by the shecession. They rallied, demanded, marched, and led an inspired fight for equality even while fighting a global pandemic.
The past two years have laid bare the many flawed systems in our country that are ripe for reinvention using a feminist lens. If we hope to make lemonade out of the pandemic’s many lemons, rebuild our economy and re-envision the world of work, attention must first be focused on the care economy that is performed overwhelmingly by women.
We all know and rely on the care economy, including health care, child care, elder care and more. We’ve all come to recognize how essential such work is to the functioning of our society. If we didn’t know this before the pandemic, we do now.
A modern and feminist strategy is needed to address the challenges facing care workers. This means increased investments in the care services and supports that people and families need. Canada falls near the bottom among wealthy countries in its public expenditure on social services. Social spending as a share of GDP is 2% less than the average OECD rate among all wealthy countries.
The International Labour Organization’s ground-breaking report on Care Work and Care Jobs examines paid and unpaid care work and makes the following recommendations for governments:
recognize, reduce and redistribute unpaid care work;
reward paid care work, by promoting more and decent work for care workers;
and guarantee care workers’ representation, social dialogue and collective bargaining.
Yes, women need unions and governments should reform labour laws to ensure access to fair and free collective bargaining rather than instituting barriers to unionization.
There are promising signs that some governments are beginning to understand and appreciate these ideas around making sure care work is decent work.
In a surprising announcement on Feb. 10, 2022, Progressive Conservative Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston announced his government would be investing $65 million into health authorities, long-term care and home care to raise Continuing Care Assistant (CCA) wages by nearly 23%.
The raise went into effect immediately, leaving CCAs in tears of joy. Compare that to what’s happening in Ontario, where Conservative Premier Doug Ford has refused to dismantle Bill 124 that suppresses the wages of women workers across the public service, but most especially in health care.
By the way you don’t get to call health care workers heroes in one breath and suppress their wages in the next. Ford needs to understand, the women workers of Ontario are not going to go quietly into the night. We will continue to demand fairness, justice and decent work. Every single day.
The federal government’s plan to provide $10-a-day childcare by 2025 has been a bright spot for women across Canada who have long been torn between paying mortgage-sized amounts for childcare or leaving their jobs to care for their children.
Affordable, accessible, quality childcare is long overdue but once again Doug Ford is dragging his feet, sending a clear message to the women workers and parents of Ontario: you don’t deserve the same affordable childcare as the rest of Canada. Ford needs to understand, we are not going away and neither are our demands.
For what it’s worth, if the Premier does not sign an agreement with Ottawa before March 31 – 23 days from now – the province will lose the first full year of funding, $1.2 billion.
Let’s be clear.
Women will not stop demanding. We will not stop organizing. We will not stop our fight for gender and racial justice. Not today. Not until we win this better world of full equality for all women and girls. Politicians should take note, because together, women are unstoppable.
Keep organizing, sisters.
