Global Day of Action: Investments and decent work in care

Global Day of Action for Care 2021

As the world is still navigating a devastating health and socioeconomic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of workers in health, care and early childhood education – the majority of whom are women, and often from racialised and migrant communities – continue to provide essential services under the most challenging of circumstances.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed how decades of underinvestment in public health and care systems have severely affected the quality, accessibility, and safety of health and care services.

The pandemic has also deepened pre-existing national and global structural inequalities across gender, class and, in many cases, racial and ethnic lines.
There is an urgent need for adequate investment in universal, equitable, quality, public and gender transformative health and care systems for:

  • the creation of decent jobs for women and men in the care sector, including access to vocational and lifelong learning;
  • improving pay and working conditions for workers in health, care and education;
  • ensuring availability and accessibility by all to quality public health, care and education services;
  • stimulating sustainable economic and jobs growth; and
  • realising gender equality policies and programmes.

On 29 October, workers, their unions and civil society allies around the world will take action to demand investments and decent work in care!

The annual Global Action Day on 29 October is a joint initiative of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Public Services International (PSI), UNI Global Union, Education International (EI), International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF) and Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO).

Join the Global Day of Action for Care

  • Sign up to get updates about the Global Day of Action.
  • Download the social media pack.
  • Let us know what action you will be taking by sending us an email to [email protected].
  • Spread the word: Get your friends, colleagues, unions involved in the Global Day of Action.
  • Share updates on your action(s) on social media platforms, using the hashtags #CAREday21 #InvestInCare.
  • Tell us how it went: Send us an email at [email protected].

Ideas for action

  • Send a letter to your government stipulating key demands.
  • Launch an advocacy and awareness-raising campaign to promote investments and decent work in care; the campaign can include (virtual) public events, the launch of a petition in collaboration with civil society allies, and/or a press conference to announce key demands and to launch your campaign.
  • Launch an organising campaign to support care workers in joining unions and exercising their collective rights.
  • Share on social media video messages and/or social media graphics of health and social care workers and/or care recipients and family members of the care recipients to highlight the value and importance of universal access to properly resourced quality public health and care services.
  • Organise a Twitter storm with key messages for governments and policy makers.
  • Show support and solidarity with care workers across all sectors.