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INTERNATIONAL TRADE UNION CONFERENCE OF WORKING WOMEN
CONFERENCE HELD IN BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 13 AND 14 2007
SKEVI KOUKOUMA  – WIDF VICE PRESIDENT PARTICIPATION

Contribution by Skevi Koukouma - WIDF Vice President

Dear Friends,

On behalf of WIDF, I would like to thank you for the invitation to participate in this international conference that WFTU is organizing  and to congratulate you for the initiative to discuss on this level, the problems that working women face today and the position of the class oriented trade union movement.

As it was stressed during the 14^th Congress of WIDF that was held last April in Venezuela, the cooperation of WIDF with the WFTU can push forward and strengthen the women’s movement in their struggle against unemployment, poverty, exploitation, physical violence, human trafficking and generally the awful working conditions which contemporary women live everyday around the world.

It is needless to say that the situation of women as well as the circumstances varies depending on the status of each national or continental society they live in. For instance, an African’s woman’s life concludes an exhausting working life, a lack of access to information regarding health, hygiene, practices that remind medieval era, extreme poverty and danger.  On the other hand, women in Europe and other “developed countries” are living in a context of insecurity, low-paid job, poverty, exploitation and discrimination, manipulation of their will offering to women solutions like “flexicurity” with unpaid or part time jobs, self employed and “women entrepreneur’s schemes”.    

The oppression however of women and of all working people is not limited. In the USA and in Europe the attacks of neo-liberalism are advancing at an extraordinary pace. The equality between men and women may have been covered with the prestige of constitutional and legal provisions but the inequality and the discrimination that women face is created, elevated and usually reinforced by the legal, cultural, social and economic conditions they live in.

Family friendly social policies are just slogans. Public welfare services, the factor for support to working women, are being privatized gradually but steadily. Productive sectors, which employ a significant percentage of women are falling into decline and are being undermined due to “competition and entrepreneurship”. Partial and precarious employment among women is increasing significantly at the same time when unemployment among women and unofficial work is double than of men. Large business is forcing working women to make a pledge that they will not become pregnant for a specific period of time and in the contrary they will be thrown out. The age level for retirement have increased, expenditure on health system and social insurance systems are being put on the shoulders of the working people and to all of these developments we can add the inequality in pay for women, which is still very prevalent. Employers are subjecting to slavery, racism and to abjection immigrant women, the poorest of the poor. The Lisbon Strategy and its consequences (The Bolkenstine Directive, the working time directive etc) are hurting all working people but they are particularly crushing working women. The double exploitation of women – class and gender oppression is a component part of a policy that organizes and manages everything on the basis of profit. This is the policy upon which the EU and the “developed states” of the world are being build and unified on.

We should also add some other characteristics of our times, characteristics of contemporary capitalism; enforced prostitution- the third biggest source of profit after drug trade and the sale of armaments- violence within the family, sexual and psychological abuse of women, rape, and commercialization of the body of women.

WIDF’s position is that all these are symptoms of a system that is aging but has still not vanished. The struggles of the women’s movement literary coexist with the historical mission of the labor class.

The protection of the workers gains and contemporary demands of the class labor movement it is not only an issue of the women’s movement. At this forefront, a huge field of development and cooperation is opened widely, exchanging   experiences and organizing common actions between WFTU and WIDF on the women’s labor rights and generally on issues that affect the peoples of the world.

Trade Unions, women organizations, groups of fired or unemployed can develop a network of international labor solidarity and use more radical methods for mobilizations against the antilabor and neoliberal policies of International organizations such as the IMF, World Bank, World Trade Organization etc. These policies have led 2.8 billion people all over the world living below the poverty line, 70% of them are women. In many countries women work from the age of 13 under terrible conditions from 12 to 16 ours a day just for a piece of bread in the factories of the multinationals. In the 1,000 Free Trade Zones operating in 70 countries of the world (where the states do not impose any protection concerning working people) working people live in specially segregated rooms, without any water and kept away from their families. After a few years they are considered as “non productive” since the conditions they work and live in, have destroyed their health irreparably. Around 30 million people are working in these conditions of hell and the overwhelming majority of them are women and young girls.

WFTU and WIDF should also cooperate in the field of ideological and political struggle because the system elaborates a complete strategy and tactic for the ideological manipulation of the people, in an effort to hide the real reasons of the inequality and the oppression. It appears for example the participation of women of the elite at the decision-making bodies as a joyful event for the working women of the world. We should be for example grateful because the imperialistic wars are launched by women planet rulers or women foreign ministers. Or still with this perception, we should greed the women that implement the neolibera- listic and antilabor policies that are pushing the rest of the women in unemploy- ment, poverty and indigence. Elsewhere again, the national, cultural and religion differences that lead to the violation of the women’s rights are emphasized. Unfortunately this are perceptions that gained ground and they must be addressed coordinated and decisively.

The European organizations members of WIDF, we are working to produce the Manifesto of the women in Europe. Under the title “What Women Want in Europe”- www Europe, we are ready to use the Manifesto as a campaigning and awareness raising tool. Clearly the issues being addressed in this embryonic manifesto – peace, work, children and young people, water, reproductive rights and violence – are not comprehensive. But they are central to women’s live and give a flavor of some of the most pressing issues that women face. We invite sisters in Europe to join us and to add to the debates and to our struggles. We also welcome comments from anyone around the world.

The UN decisions is that 2009 will be a year dedicated to women and work. My proposal is that WFTU and WIDF must dynamically develop a plan of actions to reinforce the ideological struggle to prove the real nature of the double exploitation of women. To prove that the women’s emancipation is an essential element of the struggle of the labor class for its social liberation and qualitatively better society.

I conclude my contribution reminding you with one of Clara Zetkin’s  saying:  “Thus women’s work is not only a cheap form of labor, it also cheapens the work of men and for that reason it is double appreciated by the capitalists, who craves profits”.

World Federation of Trade Unions

INTERNATIONAL TRADE UNION CONFERENCE OF WORKING WOMEN

September 13 and 14 2007, Brussels Belgium

Final Declaration

The Conference on Working Women organized by the World Federation of Trade Unions was held in Brussels from September 13th to 14th 2007 and was attended by 95 delegates from 62 countries representing 80 trade union organizations.
 
During two days participants exchanged about the situation of working women in their respective countries and regions, recognizing that there had been "some progress" only for rich and affluent sections among them, leaving the large mass of women for whom there are still many problems remaining unresolved and that there are many obstacles and gaps in terms of gender equality.
 
The conference recognized,

• that the international finance capital is on offensive through its instruments to circumvent the interests of the workers-farmers and other poor and vulnerary sections of the developing economies and the interests of labour and other weaker and vulnerable sections in the developed world as well. The process of exclusion is impacting women the most.

• That the attempts of the Multinational Corporations/ Transnations Corporations to appropriate and control the natural resources, the small businesses and enterprises, the farming lands, the knowledge base of diverse societies in various countries are
  aggressively being pursued and the women are bearing the main brunt of these policies.

• That we characterize the process being imposed as Capitalist Globalisation, and it has de-humanising impact on the society.

• That the imperialist wars have been imposed on Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon bleeding the mass of people, specially bringing untold miseries on women and children. The people in the Palestine and occupied territories in the Arab World continue to suffer violence and aggression at the hands of Israeli regime with backing from US Administration. The US administration continues to declare any country at its will 'a rogue' and decides its target for ruination.

• That the militarization, aggression, threat of aggression are continued as matter of policy to pursue the economic exploitation and plunder of nations, regions and the people at large.

• That the anti-labour policies at international, regional and national levels are deepening the inequalities and there has been a growing gap between rich and poor countries as well as between regions, even within countries and the women have been the most affected group.

• Today 1.2 billion of the world's 2.9 billion workers are women (40%)

• While women are massively moving into the labor market, more and more women are being pushed into informal/unorganized/contract/casual/daily labour in indecent work conditions with very low wages/earnings. They are integrated under the worse conditions with low payment and low working status remaining at the bottom of the occupational hierarchy and they also tend to have unsafe working conditions, something that serves as tool for the attack against labor rights.

• Poverty is increasingly feminized.  Women are 60 % of the world's working poor people.

• More women than ever before are unemployed (81.8 million). They are mostly stuck in low productivity jobs such as agriculture, the field of services and the informal sector.

• Women are submitted to intense discrimination and they are paid lower salaries than men even for the same job. Globally,women earn 20-30 % less than men.

• Maternity protection for vast numbers of working women is barely guaranteed and working women who become pregnant are faced with the threat of loosing their jobs, suspended earnings and increased health risks due to inadequate working conditions.

• Women are increasingly migrating, both legally and illegally, seeking for better employment. They represent almost 50% of all international immigrants and they are among the most vulnerable group exposed to exploitation and abuse.

• Women are being trafficked for prostitution and leisure including young girls between the ages 7 year to 14 years. This is happening within the countries and across the borders.

• The child labour and child abuse are on rise, contrary to the claims at various levels.

• The state has been continuously withdrawing from providing education, health, sanitation, drinking water, rations to poor at cheap rates, housing for poor etc.

• The reports of suicides by farmers due to deepening agrarian crises and those of unemployed has been phenomenon in various countries.

• Women participation in trade unions organizations and collective bargaining process is still insufficient in relation to their presence in the labor market.
  
   The participants were of the views:

1. That in contrast to this situation, the socialist societies did succeed in solving the immense problems of unemployment and homelessness, the illiteracy and health, the sanitation services and safe drinking water and in meeting the minimum basic needs of food and clothings in their respective countries.

2. That those of the societies which faced reversal from the socialist economies have once again plunged into the cycle of unemployment, homelessness, prostitution, withdrawal of child care services which are vital for working women, expensive education and health depriving specially the girls and women from these basic rights which they once enjoyed.

 The participants recognized that in order to fight against women discrimination it is necessary to create just societies in which human beings may be the centerpiece of developmental policies and all progressive forces may fight for a better world. For a world without exploitation of person by person.

The participants also recognized that the workplace is a strategic space in order to create proper respect for gender equality. Trade unions are worker's organizations created to protect and improve workers' social and economic situation by the way of collective bargaining and mobilizations for the benefit of both genders; trade
unions can also demand government policies and legislations related to women's equality issues.

The Conference examined some experiences, ideas and initiatives introduced by trade unionists in terms of promoting policies geared towards enhancing the working conditions and socioeconomic rights of working women, and as the result of this exchange they agreed:
 

The constitution of a permanent WFTU Working Committee composed of members representing different regions, for the purpose of systematically examining all aspects related to the problems faced by working women.

• To develop trade union skills and training programs on gender equality at the workplace, such as seminars on international laws for the protecting and expanding the rights of working women and how these laws can affect legal frameworks, policies, activities  and campaigns at the national level.

• To strengthen the capacity of class-oriented trade unions so as to include gender issues in their collective bargaining, dialogue and trade union policies as well as to examine the achieved progress.

• To inform working women about their legitimate rights and help them assure those rights, including legal assistance when presenting claims on violations of the working women's rights and in the supervision of ILO Conventions.

• To promote the ratification and implementation of labor standards relevant to gender equality, particularly the No. 100 on equal remuneration, No.111 on non discrimination in employment and occupation, No.156 on workers with family responsibilities, No.183 on maternity protection, convention on home based workers  and others conventions.

• To promote the occupational, health and safety measures for the women workers.

• To struggle for increase of women's participation in trade unions, and also their elections as trade union leaders.

• To urge the unions to have gender-equality as one of the subject in Trade Union education programme.

• To urge the unions to involve women trade union leaders also in negotiations at various levels.

• To look for innovative ways to reach and organize women workers outside the formal workplace who works in precarious conditions.

• To develop campaigns for equal pay, equality of gender in workplace and in society specially during May Day activities, the International Women's Day and in the framework of other important Conferences and Congress.

• To plan activities for observing proposed international year 2009 by UN for women and work to have active trade union roles in its observance.

• To make efforts in order to identify and fight against sexual harassment or violence against women and to seek legislation on the subject matter in respective countries.

• To create an internet network among all the participants in the Conference for the further exchange of information, experiences and initiatives.

• To create alliances and close relations with the WIDF and other women's organizations, the WFDY and other movements, both national and international.

• To organize working women's conference at regional and national levels regularly, to provide women with a space to raise their concerns and for trade unions to adopt concrete policies, actions and results on gender equality.

• To increase our solidarity actions in strengthening the struggles of various trade unions and groups of people for women workers' rights.

• To bring out an e-Bulletin for exchange of experiences, for expressing solidarity with fighting women workers, to expose the discriminations and violations of women's rights across the globe.

• To fight back resolutely and work for elimination of child labour practices.

• To fight for full employment, dignified wages and work conditions, right to education and health.

We call upon to all women militants of the world to act jointly with men inside trade unions. To resist the capitalist globalisation, imperialist wars, destruction of environment. To demand trade union and democratic freedoms.
 
We denounce the attacks of the capital, the corporates, the cartels on the rights of unions and violations of labour rights. We resolve firmly that we would increase our initiative of solidarity with fighting unions and people and strengthen our international solidarity.
 
We address a call to strengthen the WFTU in the new course which started in its 15th Congress in Havana Cuba. We believe that the world working class needs a class oriented trade union movement, democratic, militant and modern, independent from transnationals and the capital.

Brussels, 14^th September 2007