Sep-Oct 2008

Women@Work: International Campaigns

ITF Womens Committee meeting 23rd 24th April 2007

23 of the 33 women�s committee members attended the annual meeting held in the ITF head office in London on the 23rd-24th of April this year

23 of the 33 women's committee members attended the annual meeting held in the ITF head office in London on the 23rd-24th of April this year. There were several main objectives of this meeting including:

Outlining activities and objectives for the committee and ITF around gender related issues (campaigns, days of action, conferences and meetings);

Electing the Chair and Vice-chairs of the committee;

Assess the implementation of the 30% rule in ITF education and generally assess women's participation at events;

Continue networking and exchange of information between committee members, in order to establish best practice around gender related issues where possible;

Discuss and refine a broad women's activities calendar for the next 4years, including relevant days of action, meetings and conferences.

Discussions were held and workshops were conducted on an industry basis specifically to identify priority issues, these forums in turn allowed and encouraged new members to the committee to openly express their views.

The maritime industries (dock work and seafaring) identified that a priority in terms of gender activities was to organising young women (and men). For issues specifically affecting work conditions, we identified a need to further increase negotiated provisions for workers with families and increase awareness amongst members when negotiating for more family flexibility, such as paid maternity leave.

Other than these, continued affiliate participation in Nov 25th (UN's day of Action for the "elimination of violence against women and children") and March 8th (International Women's day) were discussed as the Days of Action for the women's section of work. More generally the committee discussed discrimination against women, especially in the airline industry, which was also regarded as a high priority.

During this meeting I was also successfully re-elected to the position of Vice-Chair.

Prior to attending London I was also invited to attend the ITF Asia/Pacific regional women's conference to be held in Tokyo in May. This conference will further develop our regional women's programme and activities over the next three years, particularly looking at establishing a regional task force for organising call centre workers in our region, the majority of which are women.

Sue Virago
Women's Liaison Officer

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