The Young Christian Workers (YCW) was born and developed in Spain throughout the 20th century, as in so many other countries. Because of its youth, worker and Christian character, it was always deeply marked by all the contradictions, fears and hopes of those turbulent times. On the one hand, it was rooted in the Spanish Catholic tradition, recognizable not only in its religious dimension, but also in its very relevant social, political and cultural role. On the other hand, it faced without complex the profound changes and the new realities and challenges that were constantly emerging from the workers' struggles.

This double condition placed it, during all this time, in a difficult state of equilibrium, nevertheless very creative and deeply innovative: it always wanted to be and was, without renunciation or concessions, part of the worker movement and part of the Church. This self-taught and non-formal militancy read reality through the eyes of the history of the worker movement and its struggles against exploitation, and through the eyes of a liberating Gospel, whose reference is the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

Brussels (IYCW News) - KAB Deutschland in collaboration with JOC Europe, the European Christian Workers Movement (ECWM) and other faith-based workers’ organizations, held a virtual webinar, a discussion based on the ILO Addendum to the 2020 General Survey on promoting employment and decent work in a changing landscape, on May 27, 2021.

ECWM President Olinda Marques opened the session, saying that together we do better and can reflect on the very important question of promoting employment and decent work in a changing landscape.

IYCW President Sarah Prenger made a comment on the ILO addendum. She emphasized the enormous impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on young workers and jobs.

"The pandemic is affecting young people in different ways: disrupted education; difficulty in finding work and re-entering the labor market; reduced earnings; and deteriorating conditions of work. Precarious jobs are on the rise,” said Sarah. To meet the challenges, Sarah placed the accent on the need to strengthen social protection, health care and education, and to ensure infrastructure improvement. "Care" activities also need to be recognized as work with legal status, wages and protection.

Brussels (IYCW News) – In the midst of the cries and screams of millions of contract workers who have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the IYCW continues to speak out to the world at the International Labour Conference which has been taking place virtually at the ILO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

Ana Cecilia Salazar, a leader of the YCW Americas Team, took the floor at the labour conference bringing her lament about the fate of a contract worker from Peru who lost her job due to the pandemic. "I had a temporary contract. When the lockdown was decreed, the company suspended the work. The contract will end and there will be 50 of us young people jobless," Ana read aloud as she shared the testimony of the Peruvian contract worker.

Contract workers are the most vulnerable workers and the first to be fired when the company has to terminate the employment relationship. In her statement, which was read from Peru, Ana emphasized that the phenomenon of easy layoffs for contract workers occurs in almost all countries and has affected millions of contract workers worldwide. This form of work, as well as all forms of precarious and informal work related to online platforms, is increasing even more in the aftermath of the pandemic.