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Rights won for female Jordanian airline workers as ITF women’s campaign gets underway
8 March 2006
 |  | | Women demand their rights at a rally in Kathmandu, Nepal, today | |
Activities organised by Jordanian airline workers as part of the ITF’s Women Transporting the World campaign, now in its sixth year, have already won crucial rights for women employees. The campaign marks International Women’s Day, celebrated today.
During its campaigning, the women’s committee of the General Trade Union of Workers in Air Transport and Tourism met the President of Royal Jordanian Airlines on 6 March to lobby for equal rights for female workers. As a result it successfully negotiated a number of key benefits including health insurance rights for the spouses of women workers; family allowances for divorced and widowed female workers; and childcare costs for women employees.
The Jordanian workers’ activities are among numerous others being organised by unions representing more than 60 countries. These include a joint seminar in Kolkata, India, on 7 and 8 March, focusing on common issues, organised by several Indian and Bangladeshi affiliates; and lectures and debates on the role of women in society run by Brazilian road and rail union, Confederaçao Nacional dos Trabalhadores em Transportes Terrestres.
Meanwhile activities organised by the Fédération Nationale des Travailleurs du Transport in the Democratic Republic of Congo aim to encourage trade unions to increase the number of female members and persuade more women to run for leadership positions. In France members of the Fédération Générale des Transports et de l'Equipement – CFDT and Fédération Syndicaliste FO des Cheminots held rallies outside railway stations in Paris, in a bid to organise more female railway workers.
ITF Women’s Officer Sarah Finke commented: “We are glad that so many unions are taking on the fight for women transport workers’ basic rights by participating in this global action. The Jordanian example shows what can be achieved when unions step up their campaigning efforts.”
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