Issue No 45 | 10 March 2000 | |
InternationalThe Long March Home
Trade union women round the world used International Women's Day to launch the World March of Women Against Poverty and Violence.
The march has already attracted the interest of 3000 groups in 143 countries, and will be mobilising millions of women worldwide. Women trade unionists are involved and will be lobbying for the march's demands which particularly touch on the lives of women workers: - measures to combat the structural causes of poverty; - equal rights for women in the workplace; - a respect for core labour standards, including the recognition of the importance of unionisation for women's rights at work; - the improvement of working conditions in free trade zones - an end to speculation through implementing the Tobin tax. This activity will be carried through to the ICFTU's Congress in Durban, South Africa, April 3 - 7, where the ICFTU is working with its South African affiliates, COSATU, NACTU and FEDUSA to organise activities to publicise the march. Throughout the year, women trade unionists will be collecting signatures on petitions and getting women to sign cards to support their demands. These will be delivered to the United Nations in New York at a rally on October 17, the World Day for the Elimination of Poverty. The World March of Women's WebSite can be found on: http://www.ffq.qc.ca/marche2000/en/oct98_06.html Campaigning on New ILO Convention on Maternity Protection Meanwhile, , women trade unionists used International Women's Day as the opportunity to step up campaigning for a new ILO Convention on Maternity Protection to be adopted at the International Labour Conference, in Geneva, this June. The present Convention 103 (passed in 1952) protected maternity rights. While everyone agrees that it needs to be updated, the unions want to ensure that a new one embodies six key rights to give the best possible protection to women, particularly as globalisation is making women's work more insecure. The key demands are as follows: - that it protects the rights of all working women, whether in full time, part time, homeworkers, or casual workers: - that it covers all women, whether they are married, and whether their children are born in or outside marriage; - that maternity leave should include a period of compulsory leave of 6 weeks to protect the health of the mother and child, - that it ensures economic security during the maternity leave period, - that it prohibits pregnant and nursing mothers from being dismissed or discriminated against at work, - that it allows women to breastfeed their children at work. During first discussions which were held at the International Labour Conference in 1999, it was clear that employer groups and a number of governments were trying to water down current protections. So between March 8 and June this year unions will be working hard to make sure that all workers, both men and women, governments and employers understand about the rights which must be enshrined in the new Convention to protect working mothers with newborn children. Unions, and especially their women's sections, will be running campaigns amongst their members and at their workplaces, through journals and bulletins, posters, leaflets and information sessions. They will also be approaching employers, asking them to commit themselves to a charter of minimum maternity protection, based on the six key rights. The unions will be fighting to make sure that the international instrument adopted at the ILO in June includes the best possible standards for maternity protection.
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Interview: Working Women Nareen Young talks about how services are being delivered to our most vulnerable workers - and what unions need to do to make them their own. Unions: Into the New Frontier IT professionals are part of the new workforce that unions need to win over - and while they are often contractors, they're workers too. History: Handling The Ladies 1943 - women were filling the gap in the workforce left by the diggers abroad and Australian managers needed some advice on how to deal with these strange creatures. Technology: Building The Hypermacho Man In a stinging critque of the �Wired� culture, Melanie Stewart Miller argues digital cultural is creating a new super-Man. International: The Long March Home Trade union women round the world used International Women�s Day to launch the World March of Women Against Poverty and Violence. Satire: Kerosene Dilution Racket The nursing home industry has been rocked by a new scandal with the revelation that some unscrupulous proprietors have been diluting their patients� kerosene baths with illicit liquids. Review: Power and the Back Bar In an upcoming book, Julia Gillard argues the ALP retains a male culture that is fast losing step with contemporary society.
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