17 February, 2012
1. Argentina: ICEM Congress
The ICEM Congress reiterated its support for women’s structures in ICEM and the new organization. The three Global Union Federations (GUFs) that are forming the new organization have differing levels of women membership and women’s activities, but ICEM women are confident that the new GUF will articulate the best practices of the three. Women speakers at the Congress were convinced that the new structure will reinforce the work where it is already strong and build it up where it needs boosting.
On 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, this say coincided with the second day of Congress. ICEM Vice-President Tony Maher, CFMEU Australia, opened the Congress that day with a declaration of support to the white ribbon campaign, an Australian campaign which aims to stop men’s violence against women. In Australia, this “men should swear” campaign has been developed, where men consign “never to commit, excuse or be silent about violence against women.” The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) has taken the lead in this campaign to show that it is a key issue in male-dominated industries.
Male union members get it, and it has even become an organizing tool. Violence against women will never change unless and until men stand up to fight it, even against other men. Unions in male-dominated industries have a special obligation to take up the campaign, especially since they are able to make a difference on the job. Congress was called upon to adopt the campaign and mobilize men around the world to stop violence against women.
On 25 November, ICEM published a study on violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) together with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). The study can be found here. www.ituc-csi.org/violence-against-women-in-eastern.html Itinspects violence against women in the DRC, whether at home, violence on the job, or violence from conflict, where rape is a weapon in war.
The ICEM-ITUC study depicts rape in the context of war as the most striking form of inequality between men and women. ICEM and its affiliates have a particular role to play in the context of the DRC because of the mineral wealth which is exploited there. The mining houses must stop shirking their responsibility and finally put a stop to violence against women.
Right before Congress, a workshop was held in Buenos Aires to evaluate the project that ran for two years to train women in collective bargaining. The project was sponsored by FITAG/ISCOD of Spain and ran in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Colombia and Costa Rica.
Women’s reality in the energy sector in Latin America is very similar. In most countries the achievements in collective bargaining reproduce the clauses specific to maternity that exist by law such as childcare subsidies or maternity leave. Agreements to extend maternity leave are made directly with the employers.
In the meantime, some unions such as technicians in Brazil achieved equality and parity between men and women like extension of parental leave, extra days to take children to medical appointments and to attend school meetings. Payment of subsidies is made both to women and men. These measures are important because they represent an attempt to share caring responsibilities – it cannot be the women alone who are solely responsible for caring and bringing up children. The Chilean Oil Workers’ Union also managed to include clauses to sanction bullying and sexual harassment as working conditions, as well as eliminating the requirement to attach a photograph to employment applications and providing safety equipment tailored to women.
For women, the problems they face on the job are mostly due to the lack of access to technical and operational tasks. Women are confined to administrative areas and jobs that are valued less. Outsourced jobs are also done by women. It is tougher for women to advance in their careers, and there are fewer women in areas of decision making.
Some countries have made progress and achieved greater equality between women and men such as in Costa Rica, where all public entities, trade unions and social organizations have to guarantee gender parity in leadership. Recently in Colombia, a number of measures were taken to improve the social and economic value of women’s work, as well as to eradicate all violence and discrimination against women on the job, similar to what already exists in Brazil.
Although these measures are important, they are insufficient because the responsibility for caring and household chores still lies solely with women, which makes it tougher for them in the labor market. Sexist education at school reinforces the stereotypes.
But the difficulties are not just limited to the world of work. Women trade unionists report on discrimination even in trade unions. Women do get elected, but then they are excluded from the positions with the greatest levels of responsibility. Women who participate in training are oftentimes never present in negotiations, with the excuse that they have no experience, although such arguments are never made about the men. Women’s absence from negotiations makes it even more difficult to present proposals to benefit women workers.
Most women in trade union work do not occupy positions with political responsibilities, and most of them do their union activities on the job because they have no time off to do it.
This was one of the challenges of the training – to develop a critical analysis of the social role attributed to women and men by society and to develop actions and proposals to overcome inequalities. It is obvious how important it is to invest in women’s leadership. The meeting drew up several proposals, and the women committed themselves to defending them at home and with their comrades in the trade unions.
SUTNA, the rubber workers’ union in Argentina, has included a clause on equal opportunities in its latest agreement which was signed in September 2011. According to this clause, the tyre companies have committed themselves to taking positive action in order to enable women to work in the tire industry. Estela Diaz from SUTNA explained what was at stake:
“There are different stages in negotiating on gender in the bargaining process. When preparing for negotiations, the women need to present their needs and demands. The negotiating team has to have awareness of gender and the need to include it in the agenda. During the negotiations, gender-related issues need to be raised in connection with the areas where particular inequalities exist. And after negotiations, follow-up is vital to ensure the appropriate measures are taken.
“Gender issues took time to be included in negotiations, which was not only due to the absence of women in the negotiations but also to the absence of gender-related themes on the labor market.
“There can be general clauses and specific clauses. General clauses may be declarative, but they are still useful because they open the way forward and create awareness. Including the principle of equal opportunities between men and women is helpful because the principle can be adapted to the company or sector.
“Specific clauses may refer to access to employment, vocational training, classification and pay systems, work-life balance and violence at work. Workplace mapping and evaluation systems may be included in the negotiations, which may have a bearing on selection and promotion. Job offers need to be described in such a way that not one or the other of the sexes is excluded, and gender-neutral language must be used.
“Vocational training is closely linked to the possibility of promotion. Women are generally at a disadvantage when it comes to training. Training should be scheduled during work time in order to enable women to participate, since as a rule it is still women who bear responsibility for the household. It is also worth including a clause to indicate that people who are on leave for different reasons should have the option of participating in training. Stereotypes should be avoided when offering training, and women should have access to training for all types of jobs, including jobs traditionally dominated by men. It is well known that the jobs performed mostly by men are those that are generally technologically more sophisticated, better paid and better recognized.
“As a rule, pay is generally the main point of collective bargaining. Pay differs according to whether the job is done by a man or by a woman. Gender-related pay differences are the result of a number of factors, such as stereotypes, prejudice about women’s work, traditional job evaluation and women’s lower bargaining power. In addition, women generally benefit less from pay supplements than men do.
“Childcare should be the co-responsibility of women and men, and the employer must take childcare needs into consideration. Therefore, childcare must be contemplated by the collective agreement, either for the company to provide it directly on its premises, or to provide as allowance and a place nearby.
“In Argentina, women do not work in the tyre sector in Bridgestone, Fate or Pirelli. This corresponds to the situation in industry, in general, where only 9% of workers are women. The absence of women can only be explained by the persistence of stereotypes. Nevertheless, women are gradually entering non-traditional areas of work. Starting in 2006, a series of discussions took place as well as workshops on creating awareness about gender. Meetings were also held with company management about the need to integrate women into the production process. It is the union’s duty to create better conditions for all and to make society more inclusive and equal.”
2. Philippines – ITGLWF Works on Maternity Protection
On 8-9 November, the International Textile, Garment, Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) held a workshop on maternity protection in Manila supported by the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES). The meeting was attended by participants from Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. Cooperation between ITGLWF and ICEM in the region is already under way, and it already forms a good basis which can be built upon. Maternity protection should be tackled by all GUF’s together in order to achieve the aim. In the Asia-Pacific Region, there are different levels of maternity protection, but ideally there should be one single scheme in the region.
This region and the Middle East/North Africa Region (MENA) have the lowest level of compliance with ILO stipulations. Because of weakness in legislation, the role of collective bargaining in maternity protection is particularly vital. The ILO Convention is especially relevant when it comes to protecting non-regular and migrant workers.
ITGLWF’s Asian and Pacific Regional Organisation (TWARO) did a survey on maternity protection and the results varied. Sometimes the maternity benefit is calculated by sector, and sometimes it is calculated on piece rate. Interests vary from country to country, depending possibly on whether the country sees a need to encourage women to bear children, as is the case in Singapore. The ILO requires a social security scheme, since maternity benefits should not be paid out exclusively by employers since employers will then tend to discriminate against women. The new law on social security in Indonesia was welcomed.
Social dialogue is one further mechanism to strengthen maternity protection, but it is already a struggle to convince union leadership to fight for maternity protection in some cases. This work will continue until sufficient countries ratify and implement ILO Convention 183.
3. Indonesia – IMF Holds a Women’s Conference
The International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) held a women’s conference on 5 December 2011 in Jakarta, just prior to the meeting of its Central Committee. In general, it can be said that progress has been made in women’s representation at the IMF. In the year 2000, for example, there was zero women’s participation, and since 17% of participants at sectoral meetings are women, and 22% of participants at regional and statutory meetings are women.
There are still some sectors such as shipbuilding and shipbreaking where there is no female participation at all. Reports were presented at the conference from Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa. A presentation was made on precarious work, which had women as the main focus.
The women had common concerns, such as the absence of women in strategic positions in unions. This means that women’s issues are compromised, and men do not defend women. Women are not present enough in collective bargaining.
The women welcomed the 30% quota for women in the new organisation, although it still means that there will be a fight to ensure women delegates at all levels. Targets and quotas are indeed useful tools for getting women into the organization. The experience with these targets was positive. The need for leadership training and capacity building for women was expressed by nearly all. Networks will need to be built in all regions. The fight against precarious work will be continued. It will be necessary to organize more women in the new organization and young women in particular.
The risk of having low women’s representation is that the focus continues on male and ever smaller segments of the workforce. The emphasis continues to be on pay and working conditions of permanent workers. It cannot be that the industrial issues are limited to an ever shrinking core. It will make a difference if the issues are driven at the leadership level.
The women were happy to learn that the new organization will have a women’s officer and women’s structures.
4. Senegal – ICEM Unions Organize the Informal Economy
On 12-13 December, the union CSC Belgium sponsored a workshop on the informal economy in Dakar, Senegal. The workshop was attended by men and women of ICEM affiliates from 16 countries. The informal economy is the backbone of development in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and it has grown because of globalization. In most countries, around 90% of the economy is informal. It can be organized around traditional banking systems called tontines, repair workshops, ambulant vendors, building sites and even small-scale medical schemes. The informal economy contributes about 50% to GNP in Senegal.
The role that trade unions can play in the informal economy is fundamental. Unions can provide a framework for informal workers and use their powers to defend the rights and the interests of the informal workers. Together they can develop strategies to make the work formal. Trade unions can also create awareness among the other players in the economy, about the constraints and situations of informal workers. They can also promote trade union membership among the informal workers.
Trade unions can also do studies to improve information and statistics about the informal economy and pass on the information gained. There is also an important role to play in South-South cooperation. Trade unions can also mobilize human and financial resources to render service to informal workers.
What is feasible for informal workers is to create credit schemes such as the tontines, mutual health societies and cooperatives. There are experiences with mutual social protection schemes in Senegal, as well as mutual societies to save for housing. There are also micro societies for retirement schemes. These schemes all aim to provide a solution to poverty.
Trade unions often reduce the rate of dues in order to attract informal workers to the union, thus boosting their rate of trade union membership. It is vital for the union to go where the informal workers are in order to organize them. Here it is also indispensable to work in local languages. Informal workers exert some level of pressure on the formal workers, which is why it is more sensible to organize all workers by sector. ICEM has done much work in some countries to fight HIV/AIDS together with informal sector workers.
There will always be common interests between formal and informal workers. There are always people working alongside formal operations, and these are informal workers. People sell gasoline, for example, generally cheaper than at service stations, and mines and quarries often use informal workers.
The workshop decided to ask ICEM to create an informal network in Africa. This will be one way to boost the networking and organizing capacity of women. In some cases, it may be necessary to amend union rules and change structures in order to organize informal workers. Awareness needs to be created among trade union leaders about how to organize these groups of people because the practices will not be the same. Some of the work already done on Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) can be expanded or adapted to informal workers. ICEM’s work on HIV and AIDS should also be adapted to informal workers. ICEM’s Sub-Saharan African Regional Organisation (SSARO) should follow up on this workshop.