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A THANK YOU MESSAGE TO UNIONS
RedFem Report Column, by Jane Bouey
(This article is from the May 1-15/2000 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)
THIS MAY DAY, I have been thinking about my own work history. I have spent most of my working life in low waged, non-union jobs. During one of the few times I was a member of a union, I had the opportunity to attend that union's women's conference. I found its "women's lives will be improved by joining unions" message a bit simplistic. But the reality is that women's lives have been improved by unions. This progressive record is sometimes ignored, downplayed, or even denied in other movements.
The labour movement has fought for a wide range of women's rights. Having played a leading role in the fight to create Canada's social programs, unions today continue the struggle to defend those programs; labour activists are in the front lines of the fight against Klein's Bill 11 in Alberta, for example.
Trade unions have fought for pay equity, against sexual harassment, and for the advancement of women in many other ways. Historic union struggles for basic labour standards such as the eight hour day, safer working conditions, and an end to child labour have had an immediate positive impact on women's lives. The struggle by union members for improved wages and benefits also helps achieve better pay and conditions for unorganized workers, including millions of badly exploited women.
The Canadian Labour Congress and many of its affiliates are playing a leading role alongside women's groups in organizing the World March of Women - a global movement to end poverty and violence.
The CAW has a Canada-wide campaign for a universal, accessible, quality childcare program. Many unions have a proud history of international solidarity, such as fighting apartheid in South Africa, or supporting the Cuban people's resistance to the US blockade. There are far more examples of union action than I could list in this column.
Could trade unions do more? Of course. Most of these initiatives were the result of the hard work of progressive, strong, active women trade unionists. Women have often faced the obstacles of sexist male leaders and the triple burden of work in the workplace, in the union and at home.
With some notable exceptions, unions have been slow to organize unorganized workers - especially in the female dominated service sector. Most unions could be more active in the struggle against the neo-liberal corporate agenda. There is often a tendency for unions to issue good militant statements, without backing those statements up with action, or with education and mobilization of their own membership.
All this said, on behalf of the CPC Women's Commission, I would like to thank all those who have worked long and hard in the labour movement to truly improve the lives of all women, children, and men.
Yours has been the good fight!
(RedFem Report is a column by members of the Central Women's Commission, Communist Party of Canada.)
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