Mexico: Care cannot remain invisible
In Mexico, the care work sustains life, but is rarely recognised. Behind every working day in hospitals, medical units, child development centers, schools or community centers, there are hard-working people who give their energy so that others may be well. But who cares for them?
Comms
Convention 156 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) gives us an answer and an opportunity. This agreement recognises the right of all people with family responsibilities to work in decent conditions, without being discriminated against for caring. And it proposes something profoundly transformative: that care should not only be a private burden, but a responsibility of the State.
For Mexico, ratifying this agreement would be a historic step towards social justice. It would mean recognizing that work and care must coexist in balance, that the time and energy of working people have a value that cannot continue to depend on individual sacrifice, especially by women.
In the health sector we see it every day: women colleagues who double shifts, who take care of patients while thinking of their own children or elderly parents, who work double and even triple shifts. Ratifying Convention 156 would mean opening the door to clear public policies, real, accessible and quality public care services that are not based on family responsibility.
The government has in its hands the responsibility and the opportunity to build a national care system that not only alleviates the burden on workers, but also strengthens the entire country. Investing in care is investing in health, in productivity, in equality. And it is also to strengthen the social state that Mexico needs so much.
For the unions, this agreement is a tool of collective power. It gives us the legal and moral basis to negotiate fairer conditions, to seek clear labor rights such as care leave, maternity leave, fair working hours, among many others. In addition to public care services and for labor rights to be compatible with the right to care and be cared for.
Ratifying Convention 156 is not a symbolic gesture. It is a recognition that the work of caring also helps to build a nation. It is an affirmation that behind every hospital, every school, every nursery, there are lives that deserve rest, time, and dignity.
The future of work cannot continue to leave women behind. The future of work will be with care, or it will not be fair.
Written by Nayeli Fernández Bobadilla, Social Welfare Secretary of the SNTSS CEN, Mexico.