UNI Women plan ahead to Philadelphia

UNI Global Union’s World Women’s Committee Meeting met in Madrid on 27 and 28 March with almost 40 participants from 19 countries representing all UNI sectors. It is the last time the women will meet before the Women’s World Conference in Philadelphia on 25 and 26 August 2023.

The trade unionists came together to focus on the strategic priorities for UNI’s next four-year Congress period. This includes continuing, maintaining and growing the 40 per cent rule of women’s participation and representation in UNI structures, campaigning for the ratification of ILO Convention 190 against violence and harassment, and promoting the mentoring programme, among other issues.

The women’s group are putting together a number of motions to be voted on at the conference, including: a gender-perspective to health and safety; increasing women’s participation in unions; action to stop violence and harassment against women; fighting for decent work, including equal pay for equal work and access to lifelong learning; as well as building the capacity of young women in the trade union movement.

Veronica Fernandez Mendez, Head of Equal Opportunities at UNI, said:

“We have developed an ambitious set of plans for the next four years, and as we approach our conference in August, we look forward to working together with hundreds of our sisters across sectors and continents to finalize our proposals to enable us to improve working conditions for women around the world.”