Yesterday, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Shuler, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker and Reps. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) and Donna Edwards (D-Md.) led an online discussion on how we can make our movement all it can be for working women, as the AFL-CIO continues its crucial conversation about the future of working people and of unions.

See what people said about working women here and check out some highlights of the conversation below.

TinaKuper12 talked about access to affordable child care and reasonable compensation for working late hours:

With this 24 hour world we live in...there are more night shift workers. There is also a large percentage of single mothers. We need more 24 hour care givers at a reasonable cost. I know I had to bounce my son around when he was young because it was tough to find centers, persons to have 24 hour care.
I have another issue...the company I work for quit paying night time premiums. I have worked for this company (FedEx) for 25 yrs. FedEx just recently (1 yr. ago) stopped paying night shift premiums. Working night shifts are hard on the health (proven shortens life 5-10 yrs.), you are away from your family...I am so irritated with this country now. We are taking the worked for granted. No living wages, taking benefits away that have been in place for years. 

Figgy1aol said people who work at child care centers should be able to have a voice on the job:

Serious consideration should be made to unionize licensed Early Childhood/Childcare Centers, as the field is truly one of the lowest paying 'professions'—yet one in which a degree is necessary for work and success AND the profession itself is so very labor intensive.

Donna Conroy suggested union leadership should get more involved in the equal opportunity movement:

Help revive the Equal Opportunity movement. Company recruiting and hiring practices now are wavering far from EEO practices. This is especially true in IT and technology industries. Discrimination is so widespread, we even have companies posting discriminatory want ads all over the internet!
Companies are discriminating based on age, race, gender, national origin and even military status. Women in tech only make $.49 to every $1 for males. This is the worst wage gap in the nation.
Why not have union leadership partnering with organizations that are fighting to end this?

Alewis1106 said the momentum around creating a commonsense immigration process should be duplicated for women's issues:

If we can rally folks behind women’s issues like we have for immigration reform, we will be unstoppable! Let's use that as an example to move forward!

Edwards replied:

I know my colleagues and I are going to use our August recess to go throughout our country with the message of a Women's Economic Agenda—raise the minimum wage, fight for paid leave, support women entrepreneurs and for quality, affordable childcare and fair pay for the workers who take care of our children. Let's move this message across the nation. When Women Succeed, America Succeeds! 

Sánchez said the labor movement and the women's movement should work together more closely:

For too long, the women's movement and the labor movement have been too separate. If the two were more integrated, I think we could make greater gains.

Holt Baker responded to Sánchez:

You are right, Linda. We must be one! Both our movements are about social and economic justice, and women are the majority of the workforce. Using our power in our workplaces and our communities has the potential of real change.