Conclusions of the Women's Conference at 40th Congress

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The meeting of the ITF’s Women Transport Workers’ Conference, taking place in Vancouver on 11 and 12 August 2002,

1.   Endorses the practical and campaigning approach adopted by the ITF Women’s Committee in carrying out its work programme over the last four years,

2.   Recognises the role of the ITF’s education programmes in supporting and promoting women to participate and play a leadership role in unions, both locally and globally,

3.   Recalls that the underlying aim of the ITF’s work for women is to bring about concrete improvements in the lives of women transport workers worldwide,

4.   Considers that the issues outlined in the Conference document “Women and trade unions in the globalised transport industry” must be given priority in the fight to achieve this aim, and notes in particular that:

•   Globalisation affects women transport workers in ways that differ from their male colleagues because many of the “new” areas of work are areas where women are recruited - but which offer jobs that are often low quality – i.e. they are low paid, can be part-time or temporary, are insecure, and non-union organised.

•   At the same time, downsizing and restructuring in response to aggressive and completely unfettered competition, alongside privatisation and reductions in social benefits in the wake of government restructuring, create fear and lowered expectations in the workforce,

•   These tendencies pit worker against worker, and women against men, creating a working environment of intimidation and fear, in which workers often feel powerless to act. Strong trade union organisation, with its resultant ability to fight back, is key. In the globalised economy, strong international trade union organisation is more important than ever for women transport workers.

5.   Resolves to improve the lives of women transport workers by delivering freedom from fear, through trade union strength and solidarity, and in particular, calls on the ITF:

i.   To continue to support measures to strengthen ITF trade unions by improving women’s involvement in unions and the workforce through the use of structural and constitutional measures, as well as education and training (including leadership training)

ii.   To seek strong support from male colleagues in these aims, building alliances with them, and where appropriate, equipping both male and female colleagues through gender sensitisation programmes

iii.   To support further surveys of ITF unions with the aim of identifying areas where women transport workers involvement needs to be improve

iv.   To continue to support March 8th International Women’s Day as a campaign day, for Women Transporting the World, part of the Global Unions campaign day, asking ITF unions to sign up for the day over the next four years, and to use ITF campaigning opportunities to activate, recruit and in particular, organise unorganised women transport workers, in particular developing innovative ways of organising cross-border workforces

v.   To develop a gender analysis of the effects of globalisation on the employment of transport workers, to be used as a basis for future campaigning positions around women transport workers’ basic rights

vi.   To push for gender equality to go to the top of the international trade union agenda in discussions about core labour standards

vii.   To work to combat intimidation and violence

viii.   To collect data on transport companies which use blatantly discriminatory practices and to mount publicity campaigns to expose those companies

ix.   To work in multinational companies and trans-national alliances to develop gender codes of conduct, to include positive action programmes aimed at combating occupational segregation

x.   To work with other global union federations to identify one or more multinational company/ies to run education and organising projects focused on women in the supply and transport chain

xi.   To work with other global union federations to set up a logistics group or conference which would prioritise gender issues

xii.   To join or set up a call-centre group, focused on extending best practice organising and code-of-conduct policies

xiii.   To research teleworking in transport urgently, with the aim of identifying any moves by companies towards this practice as well as pointing out the dangers for service to consumers of this kind of fragmentation

xiv.   To support an inter-sectional initiative to organise non-mobile workers and to extend these initiatives to other ITF sections

xv.   To promote work with the aviation and maritime sections to ensure that social benefits such as maternity provisions are not lost as a result of cross-border recruitment, strengthening existing work with the ILO and other appropriate bodies to create international rules on this issue

xvi.   To carry out a survey of all affiliates with the aim of identifying the extent and nature of informal work in the transport industry,

6.   Agrees resolutions on:

- Violence against women – a social problem
- Immigrant women workers in transport
- Women Workers’ Rights
- Women and Globalisation - Air Afrique

7.   Agrees to extend support to Workers Out – 2nd World Conference of Lesbian
and Gay Trade Unionists in Sydney, Australia from October 31- November 2, 2002.

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