Why is it important to support the idea of establishing a youth committee alongside a women’s committee?
Young people are a very big part of our society. Sometimes, in our experience, young people are shy about speaking out. Having a youth committee can help trade unionists to communicate “youth to youth”.

What is your union doing for women and young people?
In our union’s constitution, we tabled an amendment in 2000 to create a women’s and a youth committee. Every year we have a meeting and an annual conference for women and young people and we hold many kinds of activities throughout the year.

Women are very active in our union – 50 per cent of employees are women and this is reflected in the trade union, where 50 per cent of trade unionists are women. More than 40 per cent of our shop stewards are women and our constitution states that 30 per cent of our executive board should be women.

What particular issues at congress do you think young women will be interested in?
Young women will be interested in issues like maternity leave. They will also want to know about the benefits that they can get from trade unions. Other topics on the congress agenda are organising globally, privatisation and restructuring. Privatisation and restructuring affect women the most, particularly in service industries and supplementary sectors. Trade unions need to pay attention to the private and informal sectors, where many women are working.

What key things can trade unions do to help promote women?
Union bosses’ mentality sometimes needs to change. If we are talking about organising more women, trade unions need to be clear about the benefits to women of joining a union.

Sometime women are not active because they are afraid to express themselves. Trade unions can help by providing information and education to help women engage more widely.

What have you learnt from speaking to other delegates?
In Mongolia, our constitution protects women’s rights. But some delegates have said that women have no constitutional rights in their country. In these cases, trade unions need to work harder to help protect women’s rights. Some unions are already moving forward on this.

What do you hope will come out of the women’s conference?
I hope that the ITF’s sectional activity will be more coordinated with the regions because each region has its own problems.

I would also like affiliated unions to increase women’s activity. The ITF has done a lot for women; now I hope there will be more change at union level.