INFOR June 2025: "Human Dignity, a Daily Struggle"
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How many children grow up without protection or access to education? How many women endure violence, humiliation, and dehumanization? How many families live without shelter, land, or resources to meet their needs? How many workers are deprived of employment or exploited under degrading conditions, while corporate profits reach record highs?
Every year, we hear reports of global economic growth, an increasing number of billionaires, and record-breaking profits for multinational corporations. As Fratelli tutti states: «While part of humanity lives in opulence, another sees its dignity disregarded, despised, or trampled upon, and its fundamental rights ignored or violated».
In the face of this reality, living with dignity sometimes seems reserved for an elite. Yet, members of WCWM and other social movements hold a strong conviction: another way of life is possible. They are driven by hope and the certainty that the liberation of people comes through solidarity and collective action.
Speech by Christine Isturiz, Co-President of WMCW, at the International Labour Conference, Geneva, June 2025
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Mr Chairman,
Mr Managing Director,
Ladies and Gentlemen Delegates,
I am speaking as co-president of the World Movement of Christian Workers. Today, it brings together more than 50 organisations from four continents.
We welcome the clarity and commitment expressed in the Director General's Report. We share his diagnosis: the link between employment, rights and growth is weakening in a context of growing discontent, insecurity and inequality. We see this in our communities, among impoverished and precarious workers with no access to social protection or real participation.
The statement that work is a question of "respect for the dignity" of each person resonates fully with our Christian vision of work as a means of personal fulfilment, service to the common good and fraternity between peoples.
Message from the WMCW on the occasion of the International Labour Day on May 1st, 2025
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Since 1890, May Day has been known as a day to demonstrate and demand workers' rights. It is also a day to celebrate the gains and achievements of the working class. On this occasion, the World Movement of Christian Workers invites its members to join with other workers around the world to "always call attention to the dignity and rights of those who work, to condemn situations in which this dignity and these rights are violated, and to help bring about changes that will ensure authentic progress for man and society" (Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Laborem Exercens). In 2025, the call is made through this message written by the Reunion Island Movement.
INFOR March 2025: "Informal Work in Caring for Children and the Elderly"
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Dear reader friend, You have in your hands this issue of INFOR, which focuses on the care sector. By this we mean all the professions involved in education and healthcare, as well as care for people of all ages, from children to the elderly, often provided at home due to a lack of appropriate facilities. Worldwide, women perform more than three-quarters of unpaid care work, spending an average of 4 hours and 25 minutes per day, compared with 1 hour and 23 minutes for men.
The ILO estimates that 606 million women of working age are outside the labor market́ due to their care and «social reproduction» responsibilities. As the International Labor Organization reminds us in its report «Decent Work and the Care Economy» (112th Session, 2024): «Societies and economies depend on paid́ and unpaid́ care work to function and pursue their human, social and economic development. The provision of care depends on care workers».
Within our movements, we see the same overrepresentation of women in these professions. Through their presence and action, they play a significant role in reducing the isolation of people and in combating individualism.
The ACO de France, in a dossier dedicated to care, reminds us that «these professions correspond to real skills. Let us make sure they are recognized. It is also a question of dignity». The articles in this issue reflect the necessary struggle for rights, the difficulty of having a decent income in retirement without recognition of this unrecognized work. March 8, the International Day of Struggle for Women’s Rights, can be an excellent moment to pause and reflect together, men and women, on this issue, without forgetting that it is a daily commitment, 365 days a year. We are counting on you to help spread the word about our magazine within our various movements.
We look forward to hearing your reactions and reading about the exchanges and actions it has helped to set in motion. It is thanks to you that our daily struggle for «social justice in an economy for life» is written with gender equality in mind.
Christine Isturiz, WMCW Co-president
