Walmart once again made the news this week for labor violations in it’s stores, this time in Mexico, and for illegal hiring practices.  Women represent 42 percent of the workforce in Mexico, and only 43 percent of those women enjoy any type of protection of their labor rights, such as membership in a union.  An investigation of working conditions in the largest Walmart stores in Mexico by the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Project found that women are still much more vulnerable to harassment, lower wages, and unfair firings than men.  Although illegal in Mexico, many women reported being asked if they were pregnant during their interviews.  Several were forced to take a pregnancy test before being hired.  One worker who applied for a job with Walmart reported that she was required to present a certificate of the state of her health to her employer when she was applying for the job.  All over the world women are forced to answer questions about their health, marital status, and plans to bear children when being considered for a job, and are often illegally fired if the employer feels the employee’s health will be a cost burden to the company. 

Women also reported being bypassed for promotions, and often being paid less than male workers.  Even here in the US, Walmart is facing a class action law suit for gender discrimination for the way it recruits and promotes managers.

Women work long hours, often in unsafe factory environments, and often times with no overtime pay (another reported abuse in many Walmart stores in Mexico).  An alarming number of working women in Mexico are still without accessible and affordable healthcare.  The National Women’s Institute reports that 94 percent of women working in agriculture and 33 percent of women working in the construction industry, two industries that are often dangerous and can lead to serious health problems, are still struggling without health insurance. Only 35 percent of all working women in Mexico (in the public sector) have access to health care and benefits. 

It is also important to remember how strongly our current economic crisis is affecting women workers worldwide.  According to one report by the Inter Press Service New Agency, the number of unemployed women in Thailand this year is expected to increase by 14.4 percent. Alice Chang, the labor director of the Union Network International Global Union, says that "The majority of women workers are becoming disproportionately susceptible to job cuts and are more likely to be harder hit by raising unemployment.”  In the informal sector, women are particularly vulnerable to low wages and little protection during economic crisis, as they have less access to public services and benefits than those working in the formal sector.  When women lose their jobs and their income, entire families and communities suffer.

So today, let’s all celebrate International Women’s Day by taking a moment to remember that labor rights are women’s rights too, and continue the fight for gender equality in all sectors of the labor force around the world.