Domestic Workers on the ILO agenda

The efforts of the Workers' Group to get Domestic Workers' on the agenda of the International Labour Conference in 2010 were successful.

IUF Gender Equality Guide

ALL for ONE = ONE for ALL is the title of the IUF Gender Equality Guide which was published in June 2007.

Gender Workshop in Ukraine

A workshop for the women committee of Ukrainian Agro-Industrial Workers Union (AIWU) was organised on January 22-25, within the framework of the programme “Gender equality training for unionists".

End Violoence against Women

Violence against women in all its forms has to be stopped.
A worldwide campaign against gender-related violence started on 25 November, the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

PepsciCo Poland case reported to the International Labour Conference

The complaint submitted by Solidarność and the IUF against the government of Poland for its failure to protect workers from sexual harassment was reflected in the report on Application of International Labour Standards at the International Labour Conference in June.

“You have to involve the men so that they understand”

FAWU is one of the unions with most women members in South Africa, and Pulane Maine is a FAWU First Vice-President. She is also a dairy worker and union shopsteward on a farm in the Free State. In fact, she is the only woman dairy worker on her farm, where she milks cows and helps them to give birth. The other women living on her farm tend to eke out an existence from handicrafts, though with little capital to back them

News from Cambodia, Indonesia and New Zealand

- New leader of CTSWF Women's Committee assists local union to recruit more women members in the airport catering sector in the tourist centre Siem Reap.
- Leaders of FSPM Women's Committee accompany women activist in CBA negotiations in Jakarata and Bandung.
- IUF affiliates in New Zealand join the Coalition for Qualtiy Flexible Work.

“Women: Let your voice be heard”

Dorothea Makhasu is General Secretary of the Hotel, Food Processing and Catering Workers’ Union (HFPCWU) in Malawi. Here she talks of her union’s progress in taking up women’s issues and getting them more involved. It takes time but, once women join, they tend to become more active than men members, in Dorothea’s experience.

Women reinforce the struggle in the aftermath of Indian tea crisis

In a meeting held in Calcutta 1-3 June, forty representatives from IUF affiliated unions in the tea sector met to review the situation of the victims of unscrupulous employers.

Why women’s structures are still needed

The Service and Food Workers’ Union Nga Ringa Tota* is an amalgamation of various unions in New Zealand, and so its membership is very diverse, from care workers to food processing to hotels and casinos. Today, about 70% of the members are women, and there is strong women’s representation at all levels in the union. Over half of the regional executives are women, as are over two-thirds of the National Executive. Women’s issues are integral to the union’s agenda, with apparently the agreement of the overwhelming majority of men in the union.

*Nga Ringa Tota is Maori for ‘Busy Hands'