Sophia Bush, Martin Sheen, and Yalitza Aparicio Martínez to Join ILO Director Guy Ryder, Brid Gould of Sodexo, Saadia Zahidi of the World Economic Forum, and Sharan Burrow of ITUC on Stage with Workers
Worldwide, Sept. 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Essential workers from North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia will meet with global business and government leaders to discuss a framework for a just economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in the first global summit of its kind Sept. 8-10.
Days before world representatives gather for the United Nations General Assembly, the Essential for Recovery Summit will center the demands of care workers and the 61% of workers worldwide who work in the informal economy, including domestic workers, agricultural workers, street vendors, and home-based workers.
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“Essential workers deserve more than our praise. They deserve our action. They have taken care of us—and ensured that others were fed and cared for—at great risk and cost to their lives, and now world leaders must take action to make sure it’s not just the privileged or well-connected who get to recover,” said Sophia Bush, a prominent American actress and social activist working to protect and advance women’s and girls’ rights globally, who will serve as the host of the event.
Despite the life-threatening disparities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, workers around the world continue to fight for their rights in the workplace: far too many workers continue to endure limited access to healthcare, lack of social protections, dangerous work conditions including exposure to COVID-19, and frequent harassment and violence while working.
In conversations with cultural influencers like Martin Sheen and Yalitza Aparicio Martínez, and powerhouse leaders of worker movements like Ai-jen Poo in the U.S., Myrtle Witbooi in South Africa, and Carmen Britez in Argentina, essential workers will discuss the necessity for an ambitious social contract that puts the wellbeing of workers at the heart of government spending and corporate behavior, rather than piecemeal interventions or austerity measures similar to those that followed the collapse of financial markets in 2008.
About Essential For Recovery:
The Essential for Recovery Summit is led by non-profit labor organizations — including HomeNet International, International Domestic Workers’ Federation, International Trade Union Confederation, Solidarity Center, StreetNet International, UNI Global Union, and Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing — and supported by the Open Society Foundations.
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