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| Results of a survey released
today by the AFL-CIO show that women are more concerned than ever
with health care, retirement security and workers rights. And women
are working more hours than ever. The survey, the third in a series that began in 1997, sought the opinions of 1,250 working women employed in both union and nonunion workplaces. Interviewers for the first time sought male respondents, and were surprised to find many of the issues traditionally considered to be of primary concern to womenretirement security, health care, discrimination and equal paywere ranked similarly by men. The studies showed more than one out of four working mothers works nights or weekends and 63 percent of women work 40 or more hours per week. "Todays working women are struggling to balance the demands of work and family in a competitive economy," said AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson. "The survey shows their priorities have changed in the last two years as they seek solutions to increasing pressures on the job and at home." Forty-eight percent of working women saw their job responsibilities and duties increase in the past year but only half received corresponding pay to go along with those responsibilities. "These working women and their families deserve action," said Gloria Johnson, president of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, adding that a copy of the survey is being sent to every member of Congress. Two women, a nurse and a laundry worker, compared their working conditions as current members of unions and those preceding their vote to join a union. At Childrens Hospital in Washington, D.C., Sandy Falwell said managements response to the nursing shortage was to require nurses to work extended shifts on little notice and take unpaid on-call responsibilities. Now that she and fellow nurses belong to United American Nurses, they work collaboratively with management to address staffing issues. Former garment worker Arcelia Martinez, a Mexican immigrant member of UNITE, said through an interpreter her union is negotiating for retirement benefits, though any agreement will likely come after her retirement. "My husband and I have worked hard our whole lives and we just want to retire in dignity," she said. The study proved again that women are more likely to favor a union than men. Sixty-six percent said workers should have the right to form a union without employer interference. The freedom to form a union is supported by majorities of particular groups, with the strongest support coming from Latinas (72 percent), 40- to 49-year-olds (72 percent) and white women with children (71 percent).
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Survey Shows Women Working Longer Hours May 8, 2002
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