CWU women working together for change
8th December 2011
On the 26th November over one hundred
delegates - new and seasoned - from 77 CWU branches converged on
the grand Leeds City Council chamber to take part in the annual CWU
Women's conference.
Debates covered a melting pot of industrial and gender issues
affecting thousands of members across the UK, and conference heard
from inspirational speakers including CWU general secretary Billy
Hayes, veteran campaigner Margaret Handforth and Nan Sloane from
the Centre for Women and Democracy.
Women bearing the brunt
"Violence against women persists" warned women's
advisory committee (WAC) chair, Jackie Gatward, in
her opening speech. "In the UK 20,000 women every week
experience some form of domestic abuse and this increases when
sporting events are on. This is a particular concern given the
London Olympics next year" Jackie explained, emphasising that
CWU continues to support women's charity EAVES which helps
victims of domestic abuse.
CWU national equality officer, Linda
Roy (pictured with Leeds city councillor Asqhar Khan on
the left and CWU general secretary Billy Hayes on the right),
praised progress within CWU on gender equality, explaining that
"for the first time in our history we have a woman president
and vice president."
Linda outlined inequalities facing women, saying: "Women
and working mothers are bearing the brunt of the cuts, with more
women retiring into poverty and losing their jobs.
"The ConDems want to erode the Equality Act, erode our
employment rights and reduce the minimum wage" explained
Linda. "Under Labour many hundreds of thousands of women
entered the labour market - under the ConDems women are losing
their jobs."
In his speech to conference, CWU general secretary,
Billy Hayes, said: "The need for women trade
unionists is greater than ever. Dave Prentis has said the public
sector strike on November 30 is a women's strike. With
1.9million women out of the workforce and the average pension of
low paid women council workers at £2,800 a year it's
incredible that David Cameron is wondering why support from women
is slipping away. We have to give the lie to the message there is
no alternative to austerity. We must press for investment not
cuts."
Women's workplace issues
The 23 motions debated covered a range of issues affecting women
members, including difficulty in securing paid dependency leave,
flexible working conditions, inadequacies with women's
engineering uniforms, lack of toilet facilities, the dangers facing
agency workers and the presence of women in trade unions and
politics.
Kicking off a topical debate on flexible working conditions and
finding a balance between work and home life, Helen
Ogilvie, WAC member of Scotland no. 2 branch said:
"For many women with small children, flexible working can be
the difference between keeping a job or not."
Echoing these sentiments, delegate Jackie
Stewarts highlighted the cases of three call centre
workers who are finding it difficult to find the balance with
changing shift patterns. In one case a mother who's just had
her second child has been put on weekend and evening shift work,
while another has been told she'll lose her job if she
can't fit around her new shift times. "Women are being
forced into part time work by unreasonable employers who refuse
flexible working," explained Jackie.
Women's health featured as a major concern for conference
with Ruth Harris from Portsmouth moving motion 8
on the issue of long-term female fatigue. Speaking in support,
Jennifer Banks - a postwoman from Bognor Regis -
explained how she experienced extreme pain in her knees and wrists
after delivery revisions were brought into her office. After
speaking to her colleagues and doing some research she found that
other health effects included shin splints, sore backs and
depression with serious long-term side effects. Conference agreed
that action was needed to raise awareness of these problems and to
ensure that measures are put in place to protect people from these
health problems.
In moving motion 9 on toilet facilities,
Sandy Best from the South West region explained
that when at home or in workplaces like call centres and offices it
is not something we think about: "It's something we all
have to do", she said.
"But compare this with field engineers and delivery posties
and there are real problems - especially for women" she
explained.
Several speakers agreed, with one highlighting a recent case in
her office where a delivery postwoman faced a criminal record after
relieving herself in a bush while on delivery, with another speaker
explaining the vast difference in facilities where they do exist,
lacking bins and towels or not being cleaned. Conference decided
that greater publicity is needed for the agreements that CWU has
with employers to address the issue of access to toilet facilities
as many women are unaware of their rights.
Education and profile
Guest speaker Margaret Handforth
captivated delegates with her inspirational tale. A mother-of-three
and wife to husband Alf, a miner at the Kellingley colliery in West
Yorkshire, Margaret thought she had retired from the world of work
for good but the national miners' strike came along and changed
her life forever. Playing a pivotal role in the 'women against
pit closures' campaigns, organising fundraising and awareness
events, Margaret noticed that "education was the thing that
women really wanted."
Encouraged by the thirst for knowledge shown by the women around
her, the Castleford Women's centre was born. Reminiscing,
Margaret said: "I was a bit of a nut about it. We had 2,000
students a year and people were so hungry to learn - especially the
women. We didn't want the kitchen sink back."
After 22 years of running courses funded by the local authority,
the college has now become the Castleford Community Learning
Centre. Concluding, Margaret said: "I love to hear positive
women. There's nothing that gives you more satisfaction than
learning."
Outlining the work carried out by the Centre for
Women and Democracy (CWD), second guest speaker Nan
Sloane told conference: "Women make up 52 per cent of
the population but not 52 per cent of decision makers, which is why
the CWD looks at the roles of women in public life.
"Does it matter? Well, there are only five women Cabinet
members - the highest was six in 1997 - and only 22 per cent of MPs
are women. In management positions only primary school head
teachers are majority women. So yes, we think it matters."
Arguing the point that it is the system within which women are being asked to operate that is the problem, Nan urged delegates to facilitate change by getting involved, saying: "We want to change the system. We need to change the nature of politics."
Conference carried 19 of the 23 motions and two - on
flexible working and workplace rights - will be put forward to CWU
General Conference in April 2012.
For more images from the conference check out Linda Roy's
blog -
Equality for All.
