Still a minority in a tradtionally male-dominated industry, RMT women are organising against sexism and for our issues to be heard
National Women’s Advisory Committee meetings:
11 June
17 September - at Thompsons Solicitors, TUC
19 November - commencing at 13.00 hours
RMT National Women’s Conference
Date – 7 & 8 March 2014 (commencing 14.00 on 7th)
Venue – Jurys Inn, Glasgow
More details as we get them
This report was adopted by the RMT Council of Executives at its December Statutory meeting:
I attended this conference as a member of the ETF Women's Committee, and was the only UK trade unionist present as a delegate. This was the final conference of the 'Bargaining For Equality' project, which we had not, to my knowledge, been aware of until now. The Project sought to address inequality in men's and women's wages, and to identify collective bargaining strategies that would tackle these inequalities.
Union believes that LU’s plans to close all its ticket offices and remove nearly 1,000 staff from stations will make women passengers more vulnerable to assault
On the day designated by the United National to highlight and oppose violence against women http, rail union RMT has revealed that while some employers are working with the union to develop a policy on domestic violence, London Underground has refused to do so. The union also believes that LU’s plans to close all its ticket offices and remove nearly 1,000 staff from stations will make women passengers more vulnerable to assault.
A survey last year conducted by the End Violence Against Women coalition revealed that 14% of women (including 31% of women aged 18-24) have experienced unwanted sexual attention while travelling on London’s public transport.
Yesterday, the 25th of November, the European Transport Workers’ Federation joined the union movement and its affiliated members in drawing world-wide attention on workplace violence against women.
The ETF website posted a statement saying:
Noam is a 19 year old woman from Jerusalem who was jailed last year for refusing to serve on the Israeli Defence Force as part of compulsory national service.
She says:
Over the past 40 years there has been a rise in the percentage of women aged 16 to 64 in employment and a fall in the percentage of men — that is one of the key findings of the Women in the labour market study.
In April to June 2013, around 67% of women aged 16 to 64 were in work, an increase from 53% in 1971. For men the percentage fell to 76% in 2013 from 92% in 1971.
Most of the shift in more women and fewer men working happened between 1971 and 1991, according to the Office for National Statistics study.
Our Executive Member for London Transport - Janine Booth, gave a report to the Women's Committee of the European Transport federation in helsinki, in September 2013.
Violence against women
This article is taken from the International Transport Worker's Federation Website
The 25th of November is an important day for ITF affiliates worldwide. It marks the day that the ITF family campaigns for the elimination of violence against women. Following the success of last year's campaign the message for this year will remain the same: ‘NO to Violence Against Women’.
THIS YEAR’S CAMPAIGN: NO to Violence Against Women
On the first day of the ETF Women's Committee meeting, several Finnish transport trade unionists attended as guests, including women from the logistics, shipping, rail and salaried sectors. We also had a presentation from Tapio Bergholm, who has written a history of Finnish transport workers. The Finnish member of the ETF Women's Committee is Satu, from the Finnish Seamen's Union, who was elected one of the two Vice-Chairs of the Committee.