In this message, Winifred is speaking for women strikers who were giving out Global Women’s Strike stickers and leaflets today and putting up posters in the maternity wards and other parts of the hospitals where they work. 

8 March 2001

We’ve been on strike intermittently since August 1st last year.  We’ve had over 100 strike days and we are rock solid.  We are fighting to stay in the public sector.  We want a caring world where we can care for patients.  We don’t want to transfer to the private sector where all they are chasing is money.  Once we’ve gone private, we won’t be allowed to give the care we want because we won’t be given the time to care.

Since we’ve brought out the implications into the open, more people are realising that PFI is privatisation under a different name.  Now we’ve taken this step, other can too.  Everyone can fight it, but people haven’t had the confidence to do so, because legislation and the government’s attitude over the past few years has knocked all the stuffing out of them.  We hope our example will start people thinking that they can achieve something by taking direct action.

The nature of our jobs, like catering, domestics, medical records, means we are mostly women workers.  They are women-oriented jobs, and mostly part-time, at very low pay, under £5 an hour.  A lot of single mother have to take these part time jobs to fit in with their children, and they have a very hard time managing on that pay. 

The Global Women’s Strike is a very good idea because without unity you haven’t got strength. Even though they keep on saying there’s equality, women have definitely got to join together.  Whatever they may say, there are very few men in the world who don’t like sitting back and being waited on!

One reason women are so strong in our strike is that going out into the private sector it can be difficult to juggle a job and our other caring job in our own families.  Unfortunately nowadays you have to do both to be able to put food on the table.

Every time the government opens its mouth it is all for the family, but unfortunately finance rules our lives, and if they don’t make provision for women to stay home and look after children you cannot achieve it.  The government want everyone out to work, and to come off benefit.  It shouldn’t be called benefit anyway -- it should be ours by right, a living wage for everyone.

Being global, you can join all women of the world together and stand a better chance of winning.  Women of the world, unite!

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