Understanding Care Work in a Context of Crisis: Health, Risks and Labour Conflicts

Even though it is universally acknowledged during the Covid 19 pandemic crisis that social services, care and support for people in difficulty are considered essential, the working and employment conditions of these workers remain often precarious, from the point of salary, contractual or exposure to psychosocial and physical risks factors. Care work is characterized by the presence of a predominantly female foreign workforce., In the context of globalization and the formation of global care chains, the literature on foreign labor reveals that it leads more than ever to appeal to immigration for “3-D Jobs” (Dirty, Demanding and Dangerous). The employment of foreign labor has seen a shift from industrial activity sectors to services, which also explains the explosion in the “feminization” of labour migration. Care work is thus one of the sectors that welcome a growing number of foreign workers.

This session aims to discuss the transformation of care work (precarious employment, inequalities and discrimination based on gender, class and ethnicity) coupled with the recent Covid 19 pandemic and the strikes and mobilizations of care workers for better working conditions around the world, sometimes repressed by police violence. Papers that focus on the working conditions of social workers and the possibilities for larger or daily ways of resistance and organizational practices (trade unions, local committees, communities etc.) based on contemporary case studies are welcome.