International Women Count NetworkPress ReleaseVICTORY FOR GRASSROOTS WOMEN AT THE INTERNATIONAL LABOR CONFERENCE, Geneva, 7 June 2000 Women win right to paid nursing breaks in the ILO Maternity Protection Convention 2000 Today women won the entitlement to take paid nursing breaks or reduce their hours of employment without loss of pay, in order to continue breastfeeding their babies after maternity leave. The proposal was supported by the Workers Group (representatives of trade unions internationally), many governments of Latin America and Africa, some Arab countries and some East and West European countries including Austria, Croatia, The Netherlands and Russia. It was vigorously opposed by the Employers Group backed by some governments including Canada, Denmark, Finland, Namibia, Norway, Sweden, UK and US. Many deceitful tactics were tried to undermine amendments in favor of paid breaks. Women also won 14 weeks of paid maternity leave – the previous Maternity Protection Convention allowed for 12 weeks. More women are covered: it applies to "all employed women [that is, any woman who has an employer], including women in atypical forms of dependent work" e.g. temporary workers, home workers [though employers can negotiate exceptions in each country]. The paid breastfeeding breaks are acknowledged as working time for mothers, payment for the caring work of breastfeeding. The strategy of the International Women Count Network (IWCN) that all women’s unwaged caring work be measured and valued which it won in governments agreements in the Beijing Platform for Action 1995, helped strengthen the case for paid breaks. The IWCN has accredited NGO status with the ILO. Together with the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) Coalition for Maternity Protection, we lobbied at the ILO for two years to defend paid nursing breaks. Breastfeeding is proven to be the best sole food for newborn babies until they are about six months old and the foundation of a healthy population. What was not said in the ILO discussions is that the alternative to breastfeeding is formula-feeding. At stake was the formula industry’s annual profit of $8 billion. A promotion of breastfeeding results in less sales of formula milk. Those employers and governments which aimed to undermine women’s efforts to combine breastfeeding with waged work, are defending the formula industry, the fourth invisible and powerful party deciding on the outcome of the new Maternity Protection Convention which affects millions of women worldwide. This is a defense of murder and racism, that is, genocide: formula feeding is responsible for the deaths of 1.5 million infants a year mainly in the Third World. It is also the cause of countless chronic illnesses, fatal diseases such as cancer, and allergies. No one can profit from breastfeeding, which is free, ensures the survival of millions of people, and protects the immediate and long-term health of babies and mothers. Women’s breastfeeding work results in savings of billions in healthcare costs. Therefore it is the target of powerful forces. The World Bank is also sponsoring the deaths of infants. It has adopted a policy of water privatization and full-cost water pricing, putting safe fresh water out of reach of those on the lowest incomes, especially in Third World countries where free supplies are already scarce. At the same time, WHO's breastfeeding promotion is under threat as the Bank has been taking over it's health promotion programmes, which also means privatization of healthcare services. This takeover supports the formula industry just as accessible safe water to make up the formula becomes scarcer, causing even more deaths and a further devaluing of breastfeeding. The Milk of Human Kindness: a global fact sheet on the economic value of breastfeeding, a joint project of IWCN and WABA, was launched at the Conference. It presents a balance sheet of how much is spent supporting breastfeeding and how much undermining it, including through sponsorships and payments to government ministers and officials, UN bodies, the health establishment, journalists and NGOs (voluntary groups). The book offers alternative priorities to those of the Global Market. IWCN members told the Maternity Protection Committee: “Women worldwide demand recognition that what we do outside the Market, the production of life and the caring of it, has social value. What, we keep asking, is more important than this?” |