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Investment in women workers could help drive economic recovery
28 April 2009
Women transport workers have called on the ITF to unionise unorganised women to ensure they get the benefits of equal pay and improved working conditions that organised workplaces provide. The move, they said, could bolster economic recovery.
Women transport workers – who were attending the ITF women’s committee meeting on 20-21 April, in London – resolved to work with ITF sections and departments to ensure that initiatives to organise women were integral to strategies for dealing with the crisis. They also urged the ITF executive board to work with the federation’s women’s committee to strengthen its existing policies and practices on organising women. This, they agreed, would ensure a strong union presence in workplaces where women were employed.
They called on ITF unions to bridge the gap between protecting the rights of their existing members and reaching out to potential women members in transport call centres, distribution depots, catering, cleaning and other transport ancillary workplaces.
Delegates heard how women were not as strongly unionised as male transport workers despite the benefits to women of union membership. ITF evidence reveals that union membership can help reduce the gender pay gap, which is now estimated to be 22 per cent. It was also reported that the International Labour Organization indicates that 22 million women are set to lose their jobs in 2009, which will result in severe hardship for women, their families and their communities.
ITF women’s coordinator Alison McGarry commented: “The committee felt that it was more important than ever to organise women transport workers. Women are being hard hit by the financial crisis; unions have a key role to play in delivering jobs, equal pay, childcare and maternity benefits, education and training to improve women’s lives. This in turn will guarantee a productive investment in the future.”
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