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19 August, 2009
Women from across the Africa Region met in May in Durban to discuss strategies for building their unions and integrating gender equity in this process.
After examining the challenges faced by Africa politically and economically and analysing current problems for the labour movement, participants of the June workshop considered ways of building gender as a fundamental component of union building in the region. Issues and problems were explored in particular the reasons for poor implementation. As a result it was felt that a number of guidelines are needed to inform the strategy and that the strategy would have to bear some of the differences in the situations of unions in mind to ensure that it was possible and implementable. Funds shortages whilst important were seen as symptomatic of deeper problems that the strategy must account for. As a result, a number of principles were determined that should guide any strategy developed and implemented.
Principles
Scarce resources means we must allocate where the greatest impact can be achieved: it does not make sense to allocate resources where there can be little impact or because the impact will be short term and not sustainable.
Gender development is fundamentally linked to union development: gender activities and structures should not happen in isolation to the union. They must be integrated by union and gender strategies and systems relating to each other. The idea is also that as you build and service women workers you build the union.
Good practice shows use of constitutional structures/resolutions is the most effective gender development strategy: where gender structures and practice are well integrated unions have generally reached this situation by gender activists driving the agenda through constitutional meetings, by passing resolutions making issues a responsibility of leadership.
Building practical union to union solidarity: if gender priorities are seen as representing a common interest throughout the region activities in a strategy must bring people together to actively support each other. One practical way is for unions to develop relationships where women from an established gender structure may share and support others still in the process of establishing such a structure. This also means building a core group of gender activists in the region that can act as a common pool of resources and experience to be drawn on from the region.
Top down gender structure development does not work: different experiences of participants at the conference revealed that simply establishing a gender structure at a central point in the union seldom effectively dealt with issues. Structures should be built bottom up from the shop floor through using gender focused organising and then feed into constitutional structures to establish structures, secure financial allocations and achieve equity in representation amongst other processes.
Building sustainable unions is core to gender development: It was agreed that there is no point in developing gender structures and activities where the union itself in its current form and activities is unsustainable. Sustainability relates to self funding and self reliance and the absence of donor dependence. If funding allocations exceed union subscriptions the organisation is not sustainable and therefore by definition neither are the activities.
Women typically focused in precarious work: a disproportionate number of precarious jobs are occupied by women and this increases insecurity, maintains systems of social dependence and increases the burden of coping with other work in the home. Addressing gender means the impact of precarious work must be dealt with.
A regional gender strategy must be located in broader regional strategies: the approach adopted by the Southern Africa sub region was used as an example to demonstrate this principal. Here the strategy is defined by a number of drivers (core, support and contextual). Two of the core drivers are for example sustainability and service to members. A gender strategy should therefore reflect these issues at its core as seen in some of the principles above.
Strategic Categories
Using the inputs from participant unions it was felt that four groupings or categories could be created which would allow specific strategies and activities to be developed that are most appropriate to the unions concerned and in keeping with the principles already developed.
The first group was where there are a large number of potential women members that could be organized given the unions current scope but are not being reached because of organizational or structural problems. The strategy must deal with these issues in the union as a whole and support the establishment of gender equity through activities. Union to union cooperation on better organized structures and systems is of significance to this category.
The second grouping was seen as where the unions have very limited scope for growth of women membership and this membership is relatively small. These unions often are characterised by a lack of sustainability. Strategies relate to building the union towards more sustainable forms with support for activities that have the potential to draw manufacturing unions together through cooperation on issues of gender priority.
The third grouping was where the unions were clearly sustainable and functioning in this way. Women membership is large and gender well integrated into the functioning of the union including budget allocations. Regional support strategies for such unions include specific skills development and assistance in the process of assisting other unions in the region.
The final group was characterised by uncertainty either because of expected changes in the union or the environment they were operating in. Action based research that must itself build union capacity can be used as a starting point after which unions would move into one of the afore mentioned categories and be integrated into the regional strategy in this way.
A focus for the regional strategy that should underpin work in all four categories is the development of a core group of gender activists in the region. This group would develop skills, provide mutual support and review implementation and effectivity of the regional strategy.
The planning process concluded by identifying different types of approaches that could be implemented and the processes necessary for these over the next two years. In the implementation of strategies unions would need to actively cooperate and adopt the processes underpinned by the principles in the whole organisation. In this way it was felt that women could become a driving force in union development in the African region.
After examining the challenges faced by Africa politically and economically and analysing current problems for the labour movement, participants of the June workshop considered ways of building gender as a fundamental component of union building in the region. Issues and problems were explored in particular the reasons for poor implementation. As a result it was felt that a number of guidelines are needed to inform the strategy and that the strategy would have to bear some of the differences in the situations of unions in mind to ensure that it was possible and implementable. Funds shortages whilst important were seen as symptomatic of deeper problems that the strategy must account for. As a result, a number of principles were determined that should guide any strategy developed and implemented.
Principles
Scarce resources means we must allocate where the greatest impact can be achieved: it does not make sense to allocate resources where there can be little impact or because the impact will be short term and not sustainable.
Gender development is fundamentally linked to union development: gender activities and structures should not happen in isolation to the union. They must be integrated by union and gender strategies and systems relating to each other. The idea is also that as you build and service women workers you build the union.
Good practice shows use of constitutional structures/resolutions is the most effective gender development strategy: where gender structures and practice are well integrated unions have generally reached this situation by gender activists driving the agenda through constitutional meetings, by passing resolutions making issues a responsibility of leadership.
Building practical union to union solidarity: if gender priorities are seen as representing a common interest throughout the region activities in a strategy must bring people together to actively support each other. One practical way is for unions to develop relationships where women from an established gender structure may share and support others still in the process of establishing such a structure. This also means building a core group of gender activists in the region that can act as a common pool of resources and experience to be drawn on from the region.
Top down gender structure development does not work: different experiences of participants at the conference revealed that simply establishing a gender structure at a central point in the union seldom effectively dealt with issues. Structures should be built bottom up from the shop floor through using gender focused organising and then feed into constitutional structures to establish structures, secure financial allocations and achieve equity in representation amongst other processes.
Building sustainable unions is core to gender development: It was agreed that there is no point in developing gender structures and activities where the union itself in its current form and activities is unsustainable. Sustainability relates to self funding and self reliance and the absence of donor dependence. If funding allocations exceed union subscriptions the organisation is not sustainable and therefore by definition neither are the activities.
Women typically focused in precarious work: a disproportionate number of precarious jobs are occupied by women and this increases insecurity, maintains systems of social dependence and increases the burden of coping with other work in the home. Addressing gender means the impact of precarious work must be dealt with.
A regional gender strategy must be located in broader regional strategies: the approach adopted by the Southern Africa sub region was used as an example to demonstrate this principal. Here the strategy is defined by a number of drivers (core, support and contextual). Two of the core drivers are for example sustainability and service to members. A gender strategy should therefore reflect these issues at its core as seen in some of the principles above.
Strategic Categories
Using the inputs from participant unions it was felt that four groupings or categories could be created which would allow specific strategies and activities to be developed that are most appropriate to the unions concerned and in keeping with the principles already developed.
The first group was where there are a large number of potential women members that could be organized given the unions current scope but are not being reached because of organizational or structural problems. The strategy must deal with these issues in the union as a whole and support the establishment of gender equity through activities. Union to union cooperation on better organized structures and systems is of significance to this category.
The second grouping was seen as where the unions have very limited scope for growth of women membership and this membership is relatively small. These unions often are characterised by a lack of sustainability. Strategies relate to building the union towards more sustainable forms with support for activities that have the potential to draw manufacturing unions together through cooperation on issues of gender priority.
The third grouping was where the unions were clearly sustainable and functioning in this way. Women membership is large and gender well integrated into the functioning of the union including budget allocations. Regional support strategies for such unions include specific skills development and assistance in the process of assisting other unions in the region.
The final group was characterised by uncertainty either because of expected changes in the union or the environment they were operating in. Action based research that must itself build union capacity can be used as a starting point after which unions would move into one of the afore mentioned categories and be integrated into the regional strategy in this way.
A focus for the regional strategy that should underpin work in all four categories is the development of a core group of gender activists in the region. This group would develop skills, provide mutual support and review implementation and effectivity of the regional strategy.
The planning process concluded by identifying different types of approaches that could be implemented and the processes necessary for these over the next two years. In the implementation of strategies unions would need to actively cooperate and adopt the processes underpinned by the principles in the whole organisation. In this way it was felt that women could become a driving force in union development in the African region.