COTRADO ALAC and the CSA Open Dialogue on Home-Based Work and Informality

By: Carlos Sanchez, Regional Coordinator, COTRADO ALAC

On November 6th, a meeting was held between COTRADO ALAC leaders and the General Secretary of the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (CSA-CSI), Rafael Freire; Cícero Pereira da Silva, in charge of CSA’s Trade Union Training and Education; and Jessica Rodríguez, Gender and Youth Policy Secretary.

Flordeliz Feijoo, leader of the Single Union of Needle Workers of Uruguay; Tatiana Rojas, leader of CONATRADO Chile and member of HNI Gender Committee; and COTRADO ALAC Coordinator Carlos Sánchez also joined the meeting.

The meeting was requested by COTRADO as part of its strategic plan to learn how Trade Union Confederation of the Americas is including in its work the need to integrate union organizations into various organic forms of self-employed workers, and in particular the understanding of home-based work as a relevant dimension in the informal economy sector.

At the meeting, Rafael Freire noted that this is currently a matter of interest to the CSA, and that they have raised the need for structural change within the Confederation. To this end, they are open to having an ongoing dialogue with COTRADO ALAC to contribute to strengthening the organization and its understanding of the scope of unregulated work. This is based on understanding that there is a step back in workers’ rights in Latin America and that informal employment is on the rise, making it necessary to rethink the organization of workers in the face of a marginalizing social and economic order.

Rafael Freire noted that companies generally seek ways to make work even more precarious, calling workers in the formal sector “collaborators” to eliminate class identity. But when it comes to workers in the informal sector, they are identified as entrepreneurs. CSA does not share these policies and poses the question -how do we organize this?

This is related to the need for union structures that can absorb and represent these workers, without job insecurity being mythicized, but rather seeking to formalize it and provide security. In other words, to give dignity to work, even individual work —for example at home— so that it is recognized and has an organization that can join trade union confederations. This task is difficult because organizing microenterprises is very complex, and organizing individual workers is even more so.

He acknowledged that, for him, home-based work was associated with domestic work, and that he understood it involves other —often invisible— dimensions that need to be addressed jointly. It was considered that in CSA’s Training and Education plan common lines of work can be set out, and in that sense, CSA is open to coordinating such efforts.

COTRADO ALAC believes bringing grassroots organizations closer to union federations in each country of the region is strategic, but understands that, to achieve this, it is important to maintain dialogue and COTRADO ALAC’s relationship with CSA, in order to help ensure that grassroots efforts have the necessary support from the regional union structure.