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Great Expectations… Mixed Results GREAT EXPECTATIONS… MIXED RESULTS Unions for Women Women for Unions February 2005 International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) Contents I Introduction : Union women out in force in Beijing UN Women's Conference 1 II Implementing the Beijing Platform for Action at national level 7 III The Beijing Platform - how does it affect workers' on the Ground 10 IV What unions have been doing to reform their own structure for gender equality since Beijing 1995 25 V Special categories of women workers 30 VI Conclusions and Recommendations 36 Appendices 1 Glossary 40 2 ICFTU Congress resolution ' Unions for Women, Women for Unions' - 7 December 2004 43 Contacts 47 Contents I Introduction : Union women out in force in Beijing UN Women's Conference 1 II Implementing the Beijing Platform for Action at national level 7 III The Beijing Platform - how does it affect workers' on the Ground 10 IV What unions have been doing to reform their own structure for gender equality since Beijing 1995 25 V Special categories of women workers 30 VI Conclusions and Recommendations 36 Appendices 1 Glossary 40 2 ICFTU Congress resolution ' Unions for Women, Women for Unions' - 7 December 2004 43 Contacts 47 I. INTRODUCTION Union women out in force in Beijing UN Women's Conference In 1995, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) brought together a delegation of more than 300 women trade unionists at the Fourth United Nations' Women's Conference in Beijing. Working as a united force, their lobbying ensured that the final Beijing Platform for Action included a strong section on women workers' rights. The Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) covers 12 'critical areas of concern': women in poverty, unequal access to education and training, and health care; violence against women, the effects of conflict, economic inequality; unequal share in decision-making, institutional means for women's advancement, women's human rights, women in the media, women and the environment, and the rights of the girl child. Five years later, in September 2000, 189 Heads of State agreed the Millennium Declaration in New York and with it a set of eight 'Millennium Development Goals' (MDGs) to be achieved by 2015. The MDGs were inspired by the work carried out on the BPfA and the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). All the goals relate to gender equality, and Goal Number 3 addresses gender specifically. Trade union women believe that the MDGs cannot be achieved unless the gender policies of the BPfA inform the implementation of all eight goals. 1 I. INTRODUCTION Union women out in force in Beijing UN Women's Conference In 1995, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) brought together a delegation of more than 300 women trade unionists at the Fourth United Nations' Women's Conference in Beijing. Working as a united force, their lobbying ensured that the final Beijing Platform for Action included a strong section on women workers' rights. The Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) covers 12 'critical areas of concern': women in poverty, unequal access to education and training, and health care; violence against women, the effects of conflict, economic inequality; unequal share in decision-making, institutional means for women's advancement, women's human rights, women in the media, women and the environment, and the rights of the girl child. Five years later, in September 2000, 189 Heads of State agreed the Millennium Declaration in New York and with it a set of eight 'Millennium Development Goals' (MDGs) to be achieved by 2015. The MDGs were inspired by the work carried out on the BPfA and the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). All the goals relate to gender equality, and Goal Number 3 addresses gender specifically. Trade union women believe that the MDGs cannot be achieved unless the gender policies of the BPfA inform the implementation of all eight goals. 1 Contacts: THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS African Regional Organisation (AFRO) Nairobi - Kenya 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Fax (254) 20-215072 2. Achieve universal primary education Phone (254) 20-244336/340046/717308 3. Promote gender equality and empower woman E-mail [email protected] 4. Reduce child mortality 5. Improve maternal health Website www.icftuafro.org 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases Asian & Pacific Regional Organisation (APRO) 7. Ensure environmental sustainability Singapore 8. Develop a global partnership for development Fax (65) 63273576 Phone (65) 63273590 E-mail [email protected] In March 2005, the 49th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women Website www.icftu-apro.org (CSW) will review and appraise the Beijing Platform for Action. This report Organización Regional Interamericana de Trabajadores (ORIT) is the trade union's contribution to that appraisal. It presents the unions' Caracas - Venezuela views on government progress on implementing the Beijing Platform dur- ing the intervening 10 years and highlights the role unions have played. It Fax (58) 212-5781702 draws on the reports and contributions received from a number of ICFTU Phone (58) 212-5783538 1092 2780 affiliated organizations and the Global Union Federation (GUFs) - in par- E-mail [email protected] ticular the Public Services International (PSI) and Education International Website www.cioslorit.org (EI) - and various International Labour Organisation (ILO) studies. Global Unions (Note: A glossary of terms and acronyms can be found in the Appendix 1) Education International (EI): www.ei-ie.org Women and the changing nature of work in the global econ- International Federation of Chemical Energy, Mine & General Workers' Unions (ICEM): www.icem.org omy - a decade of struggle International Federation of Journalists (IFJ): www.ifj.org Globalisation has exploded over the last ten years. Some of its effects have International Textile, Garment & Leather Workers' Federation been positive - it has created new jobs, many of which have been taken up (ITGLWF): www.itglwf.org by women. However, it has also had a negative impact on women's status Public Service International (PSI): www.world-psi.org at work and in society, exacerbating inequality instead of contributing to its International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF): www.itf.org.uk elimination. State support of economic activity has all but disappeared, International Federation of Building and Woodworkers (IFBWW): services have been privatised and public spending on basic services has www.ifbww.org been drastically cut. International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF): www.imfmetal.org This has frequently taken place in the context of structural adjustment pro- International Union of Food Agric. Hotel Rest.Cater.Tobac.& Allied Work. grammes, with GATS negotiations further aggravating the situation. These Assoc. (IUF): www.iuf.org processes are doubly discriminatory against women, since they adversely Union Network International (UNI): www.union-network.org 2 47 f) assist unions to develop or revise gender equality plans (with realistic affect employment levels and conditions in sectors where women are high- and measurable goals, a specific time frame and regular monitoring ly represented. They also reduce the services on which women are dispro- and evaluation mechanisms), ensuring that the process is participato- portionately dependent, such as childcare, care of the elderly and health ry and inclusive, taking into account diversity in the trade union care. movement; Trade is truly international, with workers in weak or developing economies g) strengthen advocacy work at national, regional and international lev- dependent on strong, industrial economies for their livelihoods. This has els regarding labour and women's rights in EPZs and the informal come about through the creation of global 'supply chains' in which retailers economy, in collaboration with human rights and women's organisa- (usually supermarkets or clothing stores) source their products from farms tions, co-operatives and other organisations with shared objectives; and factories in weak or developing economies and set the terms and prices h) promote actively the attainment by women of more positions of under which they are produced. Producers in the poorest countries employ responsibility in trade unions generally and within the ILO and a workers at low wages under poor conditions as they compete for the work. higher representation of women at the ILO Conference, in line with the relevant resolutions and decisions of the ICFTU Executive Board Mixed outcomes on new and better jobs for women 1 and the Workers' Group; One positive aspect of these global employment trends is that they have i) carry out gender analysis of the policies and actions of the institutions created more jobs worldwide, including for women, so that of the 2.8 billion dealing with the global economy, in particular the WTO, the World people at work in 2003, 1.1billion (ie. 39%) were women. This is a higher Bank and the IMF, and facilitate exchange of information among female proportion than ever before. union women with relevant experiences of regional and global inte- gration processes; However, outcomes for women are not all positive. While globalisation has j) promote vigorously implementation of the Beijing Declaration and improved overall employment prospects, women are still losing out, as more Platform for Action, in particular Section F on women and the econo- of the new jobs are perceived as gender-specific, favouring men. In the my, at national, regional and international levels, and ensure effective Middle East and North Africa, three times as many jobs exist for men, trade union input and participation in Beijing + 10 (New York, March while in South East Asia, there are twice as many male-defined jobs. 2005) . The global female unemployment rate in 2003 was 6.4% compared to a male rate of 6.1%. While it is lamentable that more women are unemployed than men, it shows that more women are expecting to work and filing as unem- ployed than ever before.
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