On the occasion of the annual International
Working Women’s Day, the Secretariat of the
WFTU wants to take the opportunity to once
more highlight an issue that seriously concerns
the contemporary working women and the
young couples, a social issue that reveals
in all its extent the rottenness of the policies
implemented in the capitalist world: The
violation of the rights of maternity protection
for the women of the working class. A right
that must be defended by both the female
and male workers in their struggle against
the exploitation of human by human though
the class-oriented trade union organizations.
Maternity protection is not only the legislation
referring to the pre and postnatal period of a woman.
For the WFTU, the issue of maternity protection
conserns the general system of healthcare, from
the early ages till the old age; the health and safety
conditions in the working places; the educational
system from the kindergarten until the university;
the prices of food supplies and daily essentials;
the quality and cost of housing; the high rate of
unemployment. It even has to do with the imperialist
wars, the catastrophe that they cause in households and families, the impact of the use of nuclear
weapons to people’s health causing teratogenesis.
The woman who is allocated from nature with a
special and increased role in the reproductive
process – motherhood – needs special care and
protection. This care and protection needs to be
supplied to all women for free and exclusively from
the state services in the Public Healthcare System.
There is a need for special care for women from
their early years of age until their old age, there
is a need for special arrangements for women in
the working place during their reproductive years.
In the contemporary society which is based
in the exploitation of men and women by the
capital, maternity and labour are in conflict.
The need of the working class to protect
its reproductive process and the well-being
of its descendants lead us directly to see
that capitalism cannot deliver; it is an
obstacle to all the contemporary needs of
the working people and the poor people.
One the on hand, capitalism pushed women
massively in the production using them as the
cheapest labour force, with less rights than
the men. During the latest decades, with the
struggle of the workers movement, women
managed to gain a type of “equality” in the
exploitation and they managed to have some
special rights such as the early retirement age.
Today, especially in a period of a deep capitalist
crisis, the living conditions of the vast majority
are getting worse. Women are either working
overtime or working part time or are unemployed in
big numbers. The “flexible” working conditions are
dominant opposed to stable work. Their working
hours are completely defined by the needs of the
capitalists according to their needs for profits.
The possibility of pregnancy and motherhood
prevents women from getting employment.
The dismissals, the flexible working hours and
the overtime, the night shifts… In general the
intensification and super-exploitation of women
increase the precariousness, the anxiety of women
affecting their physical or psychological health.
Their working conditions and the low wages,
the poverty, the uncertainty of the future, the
precariousness become basic criteria of a family in
its decision to postpone maternity. These are main
reasons why abortions rise in many countries. We
need to fight for every woman and each couple to be
able to choose freely their own future and we need
to fight that there will be a free and public healthcare
system able to support their decision. But we need
also, to fight hard and confront the real social
reasons that lead a woman/couple to abortion.
In the workplaces, the scientific and technological
achievements for the health and safety are not
implemented because of their extra cost creating
serious risk factors in the work places. From lifting
weight to inhaling bacteria and fungus, many of those
factors create problems in conceiving, miscarriages,
problems in the baby’s normal development.
The scientific achievements in this area, in helping women conceive, are not provided as a social
service but as a way for capitalists owning hospitals
and healthcare facilities to make profits. The
public health care facilities around the world are
undermined and function with private-economic
criteria. The admitted persons have to pay for the
services that are being provided to them. Many
times these services are much less than expected.
But even after the natal, the family has to
undertake a series of everyday activities that have
to do with the reproduction of the labour force. The
house of a poor family is at the same time a small
restaurant, a laundry, a kinder-garden, an old-age
home and so much more. These are all activities
that usually women are undertaking in their
free time, working for free for the whole society.
In most countries not even the ILO Conventions
that define that maternity leave should be 14
weeks after and at no less than one week before
the natal are respected. ILO Conventions also
state that women should be entitled to the twothirds of the previous earnings for these 14 weeks.
“Out of the 167 countries, 97 per cent provide cash benefits
for women during maternity leave and 42 per cent provide
at least two-thirds of previous earnings for 14 weeks. What
is more important is how countries finance cash benefits
during maternity leave. We noticed a shift away from the
systems relying entirely on employer responsibility. By 2009,
half of the countries financed benefits solely through their
social security systems or public funds in order to relieve
employers. A share of 17 per cent relied on a mix of payments
by employers and social security, while in one-fourth (26
per cent) of the countries payment is still covered entirely
by the employer with no public or social security support.
We found out that paternity leave provisions are becoming
increasingly common around the world, with at least 49
countries providing paternity or parental leave policies
that fathers can use around the birth of their child.
In some countries, women in agriculture, domestic
work or part-time work are still explicitly excluded
from legal coverage and cash maternity benefits.
In at least 54 countries, domestic workers are covered
by maternity leave legislation, including Guatemala,
which has recently extended social security services to
these workers, such as maternal and infant health care.”
Our maternity protection demands have to
refer to all these fields of the life of the society.
• Adequate pre and post-natal paid maternity
leave. Banning of the dismissals of pregnant
women. Parental leave with full healthcare and
insurance. Banning of night-shifts and hazardous
work for the women before and after giving birth.
• Decisive confronting of the unemployment rates
through a development path that make use of
the natural wealth-producing resources, the land
and the industries to satisfy the needs of the
peoples and not the profiting of the monopolies.
• Free, public and qualitative Healthcare System
that will take care of all the people of all the ages
in any of their needs; vaccinations, regular HIV
tests, proper medication for all the occasions.
• Free, public and qualitative Education
System from the kindergarten to the university.
An educational process that would make
sure that people receive general knowledge
and specialized education, to grow up and
become an integrated personality utilizing fully
its capabilities for the benefit of the society.
• Full-time, Stable job with dignified salaries.
7hours a day, 5 days a week, 35 hours a week.
• Real and sufficient house subsidy or loans
without interest for the young couples.
• A network of real free, public and qualitative
services that will assist the family, the child, the
elderly, the people with special needs, in order for
the life of the woman to be improved. Free, public
and qualitative kindergartens, old-homes, vacationfacilities, restaurants at the working places.
The right to maternity protection for the women
of the working class is not only a matter of
struggle of the working women but the entire
working class. Men and women workers must
jointly struggle against inequality, gender
discrimination and maternity protection.
THE SECRETARIATWORLD FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS
MARCH 2013
40, Zan Moreas str, 117 45 Athens, GREECE
Tel: +30210 9214417, +30210 9236700, Fax: +30210 9214517
E-mails: info@wftucentral.org, international@wftucentral.org
Website: www.wftucentral.org