Street vendors might not be the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about care work, which is broadly defined as any form of work related to caring for others, either directly (e.g. feeding a baby) or indirectly (e.g. cleaning). But as workers who are unrecognized by most governments and without adequate protections, our life is dedicated to caring for each other.

As care becomes a more relevant topic for workers’ rights all over the world (this year, it will be for the first time ever the topic of discussion at the International Labour Conference), we want to share our experience as labor leaders, parents and workers.

We both grew up in markets in Guatemala. Our parents were street vendors and we followed in their footsteps. We joined street and market vendors’ organizations when we were young and have battled for our rights with our comrades since then. We got together and started our family almost three decades ago.

It was not always easy. You have to make time for everything. Time for your kids and your spouse, time for your comrades, and time for the work that actually feeds you and your family. As a couple, we are always dividing our labor between the two of us. Sometimes one of us will go sell and another will join a workers’ meeting. One will stay home with the kids and the other will go plan a march.

We learned that we cannot be completely devoted to our work. We need time for ourselves and our family too. We’ve strived to behave at home the same way we behave with our comrades in the streets. We apply the same principles of honesty and solidarity. Often, labor organizers will just focus on the work and break away from their spouses and their children. The families disintegrate. And especially in the markets, you find all sorts of people. From those you inspire you to be your best, to delinquents who can drag you to your worst.

It has not always been easy. Our children are grown now, they will soon be 26, 21 and 17. Since they were young, they have learned about responsibility and commitment. We never hid our work from them, and we never hid it from each other. We know about it when one of us receives threats. We go together, as a family, to protests. We explain the situation of workers in our country to our children and why we are fighting for a better future. We always made our children’s education a priority. Street vending is dignified work but the lack of labor rights and social protection makes us vulnerable. We have always wanted our children to have a more stable situation.

Despite all the challenges of being a worker in the informal economy, we are lucky that we are not alone. Street vendors have always been in a vulnerable situation, and this vulnerability taught us solidarity and we have developed a culture of mutual support. When our children were small and we took them to the market with us, everyone kept an eye on them. And we do the same for the children of our fellow vendors today, they are part of our community. When there is a fire in a market, leaders from another market will raise funds for the vendors. When a vulnerable family loses their income, we will collect funds among ourselves to support them. Experience has taught us we cannot count on anybody to help us. We have to be self-reliant.

We are united in our work because we know what we are fighting for. We care for the markets and for the people working in them, the vendors, so they can have a better life. We have always been hard workers and very sensitive to injustice. So we know when the conditions are unfair. We know it was unfair for Jorge’s father to pass away at home, in his 60s, after working his whole life in the market but not having access to sickness or retirement benefits. We know it is unfair when mothers must bring their newborns to work with them, because they can only stay a few days without working. We know it is unfair when medical insurance companies only want to profit from us and workers are left without any access to health care.

It does not have to be this way. In Guatemala, there was once CAI – Centros de Atención Integral (Integral Care Centers), which worked as daycares and afterschool centers. Governments should once again invest in these kinds of care facilities for children and young children. We need laws, protections and policies that support working women and women, instead of punishing and exploiting them. We need to shift this approach of profiting from essential services to actually providing high quality universal care accessible to all.

Whether in a workers’ organization or a household, it’s all about responsibility and accountability, to our family and our comrades. It is about time decision-makers all over the world started being accountable to us, informal economy workers, who make up 61% of the world’s workforce. We care for our family, our communities and our markets. Will you finally step up and care for us as well?

By Jorge and Sandra Peralta of FENTRAVIG (Guatemala)

This article was originally published in Spanish in LATAM Gremial.