8 March, 2011As women and unions around the world celebrate the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day 2011, the International Metalworkers' Federation calls for greater inclusion and involvement of women in all trade union structures. This year IMF regional meetings will include half day meetings to discuss issues surrounding women, culminating in an IMF women's conference in December.
GLOBAL: March 8 marks the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day and an important milestone in the continuing struggle for gender equality. This year IMF regional meetings will hold half day meetings on gender issues, particularly women's participation and representation in union bodies and the representation of women in the new global union federation for industrial workers being considered by affiliates of the IMF, International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) and International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF).
In celebration of International Women's Day the IMF interviewed two active women from the Australian Workers Union (AWU), Peta Thomson and Stephanie Eascott, who made the step from union members to workplace union representatives. Following a union decision to encourage women's participation, Peta and Stephanie attended the union's national conference in February this year and were able to meet other women and hear about women's victories.
However, both Peta and Stephanie feel that empowering women and ensuring their participation is not only about dealing with women's issues. "Plenty of women are only represented by men, so it's important as women we feel confident to represent men," said Stephanie. For the full story see (http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=25879&l=2).
Elsewhere today, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) released a new report for the occasion of International Women's Day. The report, "Living With Economic Insecurity: Women in Precarious Work" (http://www.ituc-csi.org/living-with-economic-insecurity.html) shows that while the initial impact of the economic crisis was equally detrimental to men and women, increasing numbers of women are now either losing their jobs or being forced into more precarious, temporary, and informal forms of work.
The ITUC also launched a new video promoting the campaign on "Decisions for Life" which has already organized tens of thousands of young women workers in 14 countries:
Unions around the world are holding events today, for instance in Germany, Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund DGB and affiliated unions, including IMF affiliate IG Metall, are organising under the banner of "laying the foundation today for a better tomorrow" ("Heute Für morgen Zeichen setzen" http://www.dgb-frauen.de/aktuell/politik/100-jahre-internationaler-frauentag-kleine-geschichte/ ). Women from IG Metall in cooperation with political activists, associations and other unions commenced with a series of events since March 5 (http://www2.igmetall.de/homepages/emden/).
International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's. Following the decision agreed at the second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen in 1911, International Women's Day (IWD) was honoured for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on March 19. More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women's rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination.
Now each year on March 8, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate achievements.