What would you say to other female workers?
We want to tell the workers of the public Centenario Hospital
that in these times of struggle
workers have placed themselves on the front lines.
They have organised themselves to support a struggle
that's continuing for already 43 days.
With great force, because you have to use your whole body
in the trial of strength that's happening here.
We have to continue our fight in everything regarding the role of women
that we're continuously questioning from where we're struggling.
How did you experience domestic and care work as health sector worker and woman?
Due to the pandemic especially in the hospital
our efforts to organise ourselves were difficult.
All leaves of absence for taking care of our children were restricted.
This meant we had to organise ourselves in our families.
Despite the hospital offering a kindergarten
it is very difficult to maintain the child care services.
We work under the conditions of overburdening and fatigue.
We had to maintain daily business
with lack of materials and rudimentary equipment.
At the beginning we had equipment made of non-technical fabric.
Space was very limited which complicated everything.
That added to fatigue and being trapped.
We had to be creative and find solutions
to maintain care for our own children.
That was very difficult.
This was possible with the help of your partner and your family.
But within the context of the hospital,
with a board that complicated things
instead of coming to internal agreements.
Especially for the women. Due to the reality of relationships
the men weren't affected that much by the question of how we organise ourselves.
Because of the stereotypical roles
the ones who have to stay at home are the women!
Therefor the pandemic first of all affected women
that have triple work days.
What does it mean to be a worker on the front,
during the pandemic and with such a government?
We were essential workers throughout the whole year.
With a government
that bargains behind the backs of workers.
Where we're not represented in the committees
which hinders us even more.
In a context that exarcerbates the problems that we're supposed to solve even more:
For example, I'm a social worker.
At the social services
that have bad working conditions
we see more and more women that come to the social services,
who are poor and search for solutions, for their housing problems,
for their needs that are covered insufficiently.
They experience difficulties in talking to other institutions
since we were always present but other institutions reduced their opening hours
and didn't function the same way as they used to.
Additionally, as I told you before,
our working conditions were very precarious:
we didn't receive a pay raise throughout the whole year,
despite the fact that, for instance, a mother had to employ a nanny.
There've been lots of difficulties.
A great fatigue because of the limited leaves of absence,
many restrictions,
but some labour rights were watered down, too.