UNI GS on International Women’s Day: We must sound the alarm for women’s rights

UNI Global Union General Secretary Christy Hoffman issues an urgent International Women’s Day message: 

This International Women’s Day, we must sound the alarm. Around the world, far-right politicians – supported by corporations caving to their regressive demands – are rolling back our legal, economic and reproductive protections at a shocking pace. We must unite, organize and fight back.

Earlier this year at the World Economic Forum, I listened as Argentinian President Javier Milei unleashed hateful attacks against the LGBTI+ community, likening them to paedophiles, and promised to roll back safeguards against femicide. His vile words are not empty threats. His government has already dismantled the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, forcing gender-based violence survivors to without institutional support.

This is not an isolated incident. It is part of a worldwide backlash against women’s equality.

In the United States, the Trump administration has weaponized Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), attempting to turn something with fairness at its core into a partisan slur.

My first union job was in a jet engine facility which produced, in part, for the US military. It was no secret that I was hired because of Executive Order 11246 — issued in 1965! — which required equal opportunities across US government contractors. It was hardly a “woke” environment back then, but nevertheless the order opened the doors for people like me. Sixty years later, Trump  shamefully tore down this scaffolding by revoking the order on his very first day in office, in the name of “merit.” 

 The women who benefited from that rule, like me, showed that we could excel in roles traditionally denied to us. Now, my daughter’s generation may lose those same opportunities.

Disturbingly, major corporations are caving to this hostility toward equality. Companies like Accenture, Amazon, Meta and Pepsi have scaled back or abandoned DEI initiatives in the wake of Trump’s election. We cannot let corporate cowardice stop our progress.

We cannot let far-right politicians – be it Argentina or South Korea, Hungary or the United States, or anywhere else – attack our rights. They will not rob us of the future we deserve.

That is why on this International Women’s Day, we are sounding the alarm. We stand in solidarity with all sisters and allies worldwide: Organize, resist and move forward together.

⚠️Sound the alarm for women's rights. ✊Women's rights are under attack. We have to organize, mobilize and fight back! #IWD2025 #8M uniglobalunion.org/news/uni-int…

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— UNI Global Union (@uniglobalunion.org) March 7, 2025 at 4:42 PM