By: Carlos Sanchez, COTRADO ALAC Regional Coordinator
On February 2, 2026, the Association of Women Home-Based Workers (ATEMDO) received its affiliation charter to the United Workers’ Union (CUT) of Brazil. In doing so, women home-based workers in Brazil became part of the largest and most influential trade union federation in the country, sending a message that resonates across the region.
As Edileuza Guimarães— President of Atemdo— said (in Portuguese): “O Trabalho em Domicílio em mais uma conquista está fazendo história. Dia 02 de fevereiro, recebemos nossa carta de filiação à CUT. Momento histórico que reconhece nossa categoria como trabalho e não como assistidos. Uma categoria que tem suas lutas por direitos, inclusive o direito ao trabalho digno.”
Edileuza Guimarães’ words encapsulate decades of struggle in a single phrase: recognized as workers, not as beneficiaries of assistance. This distinction is not semantic—it is political. For years, women home-based workers in Brazil and across the region have been treated by social protection systems as a vulnerable group in need of assistance, rather than as workers with their own rights, identifiable employers, and collective power to build.
Joining the CUT changes this reality. It means that ATEMDO and its members are now recognized as part of Brazil’s organized labor movement, with all that this entails in terms of institutional access, political visibility, and bargaining power with the State and employers. It is not the end of a struggle, but rather a point of leverage from which to continue fighting with greater strength.
This milestone did not happen on its own. It is the result of a long process in which ATEMDO developed various dialogue and advocacy initiatives aimed at securing recognition for women home-based workers organizations within the trade union movement. Although these workers have historically remained invisible, they are not outside the world of work and clearly identify themselves as workers.
ATEMDO’s integration into CUT is the outcome of these efforts, and also made it possible for a COTRADO ALAC delegation to visit CUT’s headquarters in São Paulo and hold a meeting with representatives from the federation’s Offices of International Relations, Human Rights, Social and Solidarity Economy, and Diversity. Both events—the affiliation of ATEMDO and the visit by COTRADO ALAC—are part of the same strategy: including home-based work within the structures of the formal trade union movement in the region.
For COTRADO ALAC, ATEMDO’s affiliation to CUT sends a signal to all countries in the network. It shows that engaging with the formal trade union movement is not only possible—it is transformative. It also confirms that the argument upheld by COTRADO ALAC across the region now has concrete evidence in Brazil: women home-based workers are workers, and the trade union movement can and must recognize them as such.
