WHY WOMEN'S COMMITTEES?

By organizing into unions, working people have made enormous progress in wages, working conditions, benefits, job security and human rights. If working women are to gain equality, they must work with and through their unions.

Local union women's committees are guaranteed by the CAW Constitution. The women's committee is a place for women to gain leadership skills; to raise issues and organize to make changes, and to connect with other CAW women and build support networks in the workplace. In short, local union women's committees are a key element in the struggle for women's equality in the workplace an beyond.

HOW TO GET STARTED

CAW women's committees are guaranteed under Article 41 of the union's constitution. As with all standing committees, the women's committee can be appointed by the local union president or elected according to the bylaws of your local union. The local union president is automatically a member of your committee.

The women's committee is not a separate bargaining committee for women. Rather it is a committee that works closely with other committees of the local union to advance the programs and policies of the CAW about women. It discusses the problems of women workers, and recommends solutions to the local union executive board.

WHAT CAN YOUR COMMITTEE DO TO HELP WOMEN WORKERS?

• Encourage more women to participate in union activities. Seek out and encourage women to run for elected positions in your local. Some women, such as women of colour, First Nations women, those with family responsibilities, lesbians, and those with disabilities, face additional barriers to getting involved. Set up special sessions to listen to the problems faced by women in your workplace.

• Study the collective agreement to see if there are any clauses which have a discriminatory impact. Ask women workers what clauses they would like to see added to the next contract.

• Propose an employment equity program to end discrimination in hiring and promotions, and open doors to non-traditional occupations for women.

• Examine your wage structure and/or classification system to see if it is based on equal pay for work of equal value (pay equity). Discuss your findings with your committee and prepare recommendations to your executive or bargaining committee.

• Cooperate with the health and safety committee to study your workplace for health and safety hazards for women. Carry out research into the health problems of women workers to see if there is a pattern which could indicate a hidden health hazard.

• Inform members of the CAW policy to confront harassment in the workplace. Encourage women workers to speak out about sexual harassment on the job. Through the local union, ask the employer to issue a memorandum to supervisory staff condemning sexual harassment. Work for protection against sexual coercion in the next contract.

• Examine the health care benefits in your contract to see if they discriminate against women, and recommend to the local ways to equalize benefits in the next contract.

• Discuss maternity/parental leave provisions to see if they adequately protect the income, seniority and well-being of parents.

• Conduct a study into child care arrangements made by the working parents in your workplace. Could these parents be better served if the union worked for child care, especially for shift workers, or financial subsidies for child care in non-profit, regulated spaces?

• Study the position of part-time women in other workplaces or occupations to organize, and support workers striking or picketing over issues of special concern to women.

• Identify and inform your members of community resources for women such as rape crises centres, child care referrals and women's support groups.

• Support attempts of other women in other workplaces or occupations to organize, and support workers striking or picketing over issues of special concern to women.

Participation in all union activities is the first step towards influencing union decisions about women's rights. When your women's committee and its members participate in all union activities, they can be an important source of unity in your local union.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR COMMITTEE WORK

• Establish a regular monthly meeting time and place. Send out notices at least one week before each meeting. Have a prepared agenda.

• Set up subcommittees to perform the work of the committee: education, bargaining issues, special programs, publicity, fundraising, and liaison with other women's groups are only some examples.

• Have educationals to acquaint committee members with the policies of the CAW that affect women: CAW constitutional resolutions, CAW Council resolutions, the union's bargaining program. Your local union contracts are important too. In each case, contact your local union.

• Invite chairpersons of other local union standing committees to meet with your committee. In this way, you can help ensure cooperation between the work of your committee and the other programs of the local union.

• Arrange educationals for women union members. These can revolve aroung issues: women's bargaining issues, CAW policy concerning women, legislation affecting women, older women and pensions. Or, they can revolve around developing skills: effective speaking, parliamentary procedure, assertiveness training. You can also invite the chairperson of the bargaining committee to come and explain the contract to committee members.

HOW THE CAW WOMEN'S DEPARTMENT CAN HELP

CONSULTATION. Your committee has the CAW National Women's Department to support its initiatives in the local union. This support could be as simple as a referral to a community resource, or something more complex such as helping to develop bargaining strategies.

INFORMATION AND MATERIALS. This brochure is just one of a series produced by the CAW Women's Department. Other resources and background documents are also available. Regular mailings from the Women's Department keep your committee abreast of the latest information and materials of interest to working women.

COORDINATION. With active participation in several women's networks, the Women's Department keeps your local union women's committee in touch with women's committees and programs in other unions and with other women's groups at both the provincial and national levels.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE. Every year the CAW holds a national Women's Conference at the CAW Family Education Centre in Port Elgin, Ontario. Here CAW local union women from across the country can come together to learn and discuss in a friendly, informal setting.

BARGAINING STRATEGIES. Making changes to help women often means improving your collective agreement. The CAW Women's Department can help your committee propose contract changes for the local union bargaining committee.

TRAINING. A variety of CAW programs are available on topics like Local Union Women's Committees, Pay and Employment Equity, Human Rights, and Leadership Training for women and workers of colour.

POLITICAL ACTION. The CAW Women's Department stays on top of legislative changes affecting women. When needed, department staff prepare the briefs and position papers to lobby politicians and make sure the voice of CAW women is heard.

A union is only as strong as the workers who join and participate in it. The more that women take an active role in the union, the greater their influence in improving the status of women workers and the greater the strength of the union in bargaining for women's rights.

WHAT THE CAW HAS BARGAINED FOR WOMEN WORKERS

CAW negotiators have been able to make important gains for women in our contracts.

• HUMAN RIGHTS. A non-discrimination clause, forbidding employers to deny any worker equal treatment, is now a standard feature of CAW contracts. It is also CAW policy to eliminate sex-biased language from contracts. Increasingly, agreements contain a requirement for human rights training.

• HARASSMENT. The union has negotiated clauses in collective agreements making the provision of a harassment-free workplace a company responsibility so that workers who are exposed to sexual, racial or other harassment have recourse to a complaint procedure. (Harassment complaints are handled confidentially). In 1993, the CAW bargained with the Big Three the right to refuse work with pay in cases of harassment.

• MATERNITY. The CAW has bargained maternity leave as a valid health related absence from work. A woman receives either sickness and accident benefits for the period of her maternity leave or unemployment insurance plus top-up to the level of sickness and accident benefits, with guarantee of no penalty for use of UI benefits at a later date.

• CHILD CARE. The CAW has bargained child care funds with some employers which have created more high quality, affordable child care spaces in CAW communities.

• EMPLOYMENT EQUITY. The CAW has negotiated employment equity programs to pressure companies to hire more women, to pt more women into better paying jobs, and to accept more women into apprenticeships for the skilled trades.

• PAY EQUITY. CAW contracts already guarantee equal pay for equal work, but negotiators are closing the gap by negotiating equal pay for work of equal value, or pay equity.

• HEALTH AND SAFETY. The union has negotiated VDT protection for pregnant women, ergonomic changes and health and safety training programs that include hazards to women workers.

• VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN. To take the issue from the personal to the political the CAW has negotiated language which recognizes that a woman facing violence or abuse at home may have her performance or attendance at work affected. She will not be disciplined where verification of her situation is presented.

• WOMEN'S ADVOCATE. To help women who are facing violence, abuse or other problems at home or harassment at work, the CAW has negotiated Women's Advocates. These advocates are specially trained CAW women leadership who do peer counselling and referral of co-workers.

These gains are not in every contract. Your women's committee can propose contract improvements and help elect women to make these goals a priority. Your workplace experiences can help shape the CAW bargaining agenda for the future.

Click on our logo to return to CAW Digital Collections Home Page.