
A year of losses, gains, and not giving up: Union women in Asia Pacific, unyielding in the face of challenges
17 March 2021
“We campaign, we win. We lose, we fight back.” This encapsulates the
struggles of union women in Asia Pacific in a world with COVID-19 shared by the
members of the ITUC-AP Women’s Committee during their virtual meeting on 2-3
March 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated the existing challenges faced by
women workers in the region. Members of the ITUC-Asia Pacific Women’s Committee
reported that in the past year, the pandemic was used to justify the
implementation of job cuts and reduction of work hours. In most cases, such job
cuts laid off women-held positions first. Job losses were also common among
women workers in the informal economy, such as domestic workers, street
vendors, and home-based workers.
As the cases of COVID-19 surge in many countries, there had also been a
drastic surge in the number of cases of domestic violence as well as harassment
at work. In this regard, Avital Shapira-Shabirow of HISTADRUT remarked that
domestic violence has also become a pandemic and is even worse than a pandemic.
The threats of violence compounded the insecurities that women face in the
midst of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, in some countries like Indonesia, Myanmar, and the
Philippines, workers also had to resist the rollback of laws protecting
workers, violent trade union repression, and attacks on democracy and human
rights in addition to dealing with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was challenging to survive during the pandemic. But the difficulties
created by the pandemic, while tremendous and devastating, were not enough to
extinguish union women’s commitment to fight for their rights and dignity and
to protect fellow workers. Union women remained relentless in struggling to
preserve the gains that have been won in the past, reclaim the rights that have
been taken away, and secure better conditions and protection for women workers.
The hard work of union women bred significant gains. In Fiji, the
campaigns paid off as the Parliament ratified C190 in June 2020. Fiji is the
first country in Asia Pacific and the second in the world to ratify this
landmark international treaty that tackles violence and harassment at work.
Meanwhile, in Samoa, the five-year campaign for higher minimum wage bore fruit
as the minimum wage increased by 30%.
In other countries, amidst the setbacks caused by the pandemic, the
advocacy and campaigns to ratify the ILO Convention 190 (C190) and eliminate
violence and harassment at work remain a priority for the members of the
ITUC-AP Women’s Committee. Other issues that rank high in union women’s ongoing
initiatives include promoting women’s leadership and improving women’s representation
in unions, pushing for better social protection and occupational safety and
health policies, demanding for vaccines for workers, and opposing the
introduction of new laws that erode labour rights (i.e., Omnibus Law in
Indonesia and Anti-Terror Law in the Philippines).
Fighting for workers’
rights became a more grueling challenge in the face of the pandemic. But for
union women, giving up is not an option. For every right taken away from them,
they have to fight harder. In keeping with this, Shoya Yoshida, General
Secretary of ITUC-AP, concluded: “Government prioritises policies that benefit
the 1%, hence, we need to be more united than ever to build a stronger labour
movement to strengthen our bargaining power.”