(submitted to Women’s Committee, March 2001)

At its 82^nd meeting, the Women’s Committee held wide-ranging discussions on the Millennium Review. The Committee was of the firm opinion that if the Review was to have real meaning and relevance, it was important that voices at the grassroots be heard. Towards this end, the Committee decided that a survey similar to the AFL-CIO’s “Ask a Working Woman,” be conducted by the ICFTU.

During its first meeting on 21 November 2000, the Women’s Committee Progress Group (WCPG) worked out the survey questionnaire. The Group decided that it should be short; that it should be targeted to both union members and non-union women; that it should find out a) the priority issues for working women, b) how they felt their unions addressed these issues; and c) the reasons why non-union women do not become members. The Group also decided that the survey would be a pilot exercise and limited to a few countries, bearing in mind geographical balance. There was need for a national coordinator to supervise it, and to ensure that it was conducted as efficiently – and speedily - as possible, members of the Women’s Committee would be requested to fill this role.

The questionnaire was sent, with an accompanying letter explaining the process and timetable, on 28 November 2000 to the following organisations: Africa: TUC Ghana, UGTCI Côte d’Ivoire, UMT Morocco, COSATU and NACTU South Africa; Asia/Pacific: MTUC Malaysia, INTUC India; ACTU Australia, RENGO Japan, Histadrut Israel; Americas: FS Brazil, CUT Peru, CLC Canada, AFL-CIO USA; Europe: FNV Netherlands, TUC Great Britain, CGIL, CISL and UIL Italy; LO Norway, LFTU and LWU Lithuania, CNSL-Fratia and BNS Romania, and CMKos Czech Republic. The coordinators were requested to send in their summary of responses by 5 February 2001.

The requested summary of responses were received from all, except INTUC India, COSATU and NACTU South Africa and LWU Lithuania. Having just completed similar surveys, the AFL-CIO said that their findings could be incorporated in our report.

Respondents

The Table below gives a breakdown of the 13,572 respondents, according to country, and indicates how many were union members. The regional distribution is as follows:

Africa 2,059 15.17%

Americas 2,445 18.0%

Asia/Pacific 2,655 19.56%

Europe

CEE 3,633 26.7%

Others 2,731 20.12%

The 3,667 non-unionised women represented 27.1% of the respondents; 49 women (0.36%) did not indicate whether or not they were union members.

Age profile

Of the 12,864 respondents who indicated in which age bracket they belonged,

1,381 were between 15 and 24 10.7%

3,775 “ “ 25 and 34 29.3%

3,828 “ “ 35 and 44 29.7%

3,156 “ “ 45 and 55 24.5%, and

724 “ over 55 5.6%

Priorities for working women

Each respondent was requested to check only 3 of 15 issues. Following is the list of priorities, as identified by the 13,572 respondents:

1. Higher pay 7,092 52.2%

2. Job security 5,046 37.1%

3. Respect on the job 3,577 26.3%

4. Retirement security 3,459 25.4%

5. More control over work hours 3,241 23.8%

6. Career development & training 3,227 23.7%

7. Health & safety at workplace 3.004 22.1%

8. Equal pay 2,999 22.0%

9. Child care & after-school care 2,708 19.9%

10. Promotions 2,244 16.5%

11. Health insurance 1,916 14.1%

12. Fair pay & benefits for part-time,etc. 1,893 13.9%

13. Stronger programmes to end all forms of discrimination 1,200 8.8%

14. Maternity leave 1,180 8.6%

15. Elder care 970 7.1%

By regions, the three priorities identified were as follows:

Asia/Pacific (Australia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia)

1. More control over work hours (46.4%-Japan; 46.2%-Australia; 23.6%-Israel)

2. Higher pay (65.1%-Israel; 40%-Malaysia; 29.8%-Japan)

3. Equal pay (29.8%-Israel; 23.1%-Japan; 25.5%-Australia)

The top priority for the 35 respondents in Malaysia was maternity leave. Promotions was second in the list of women in Israel (38.8%). In Australia, the 2^nd and 3^rd priorities were job security and career development and training, respectively.

Africa (Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Morocco)

1. Higher pay (86.5%-CI; 45.4%-Ghana; 39.1%-Morocco)

2. Job security (100%-CI; 32.4%- Morocco)

3. Health and safety at workplace (90.8%-CI)

Whilst there is certainty that higher pay was the top priority identified by the respondents in the three countries, the very high percentage of Cote d’Ivoire explains priorities no. 2 and 3. In fact, the issue of respect on the job was the top priority for women in Morocco (43.6%) and no. 3 priority, for those in Ghana (23.4%), whose no. 2 issue was retirement security (25.5%).

Americas (Brazil, Canada, Peru)

1. Higher pay (64.5%-Brazil; 59.4%-Peru; 37.7% Canada)

2. Respect on the job (53%-Peru; 50.3%-Brazil; 28.7%-Canada)

3. Retirement security (40.7%-Peru; 37.6%-Brazil; 33%-Canada)

More control over working hours was priority no.2 for women in Canada (33.7%). Job security was priority no. 3 for women in Peru (43.8%), while in Brazil, it was child care and after-school care (46.2%).

Europe (Great Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Romania)

There are slight variations in the findings from Europe:

1. Higher pay

2. More control over working hours (for Western Europe)
Job security (for CEE)
Job security (for Western Europe)

3. Retirement security (for CEE)

For working women in all the countries, except the Netherlands, higher pay was one of the three top issues: no. 1 in Norway (49.3%), Italy (58.1%), Czech Republic (75.7%), Lithuania (67.3%) and Romania (59.8%). The second priority issue for women in Western European countries was more control over work hours, which was no. 1 for Great Britain (44.7%) and no. 3 for Italy (33%).

For working women in Central and Eastern Europe, job security was the no. 2 concern (72.5% - Czech Rep.; 26.3% - Romania). This was also the 3^rd issue on the list of priorities for Western European women (36%-Norway; 40.9%-Great Britain). The 3^rd priority issue for the CEE women was retirement security (28%-Czech Rep.; 24%-Lithuania). Promotions was no. 2 on the list for Romanian women (41.7%) and respect on the job, no. 3 (31.4%). Lithuania listed health and safety at the workplace as its 3^rd priority (31.4%).

Women workers in the Netherlands had different priorities: 1) Career development and training (44%); 2) Equal pay (31.7%), and 3) Promotions (30.6%). Italian women also rated career development as one of their 3 priorities (39.3%).

Are unions addressing these priorities?

Of the 9,282 women who replied to this question:

• 3,241 answered ‘frequently’ 35.0%
• 3,166 “ ‘occassionally’ 34.1%
• 1,337 “ ‘all the time’ 14.5%
• 1,242 “ ‘rarely’ 13.3%
• 296 “ ‘never’ 3.0%

Table 2 shows that the union women in Asia/Pacific and Western Europe considered that their unions frequently addressed their priority issues, although slightly more women in Norway (44.4%) and Italy (35.6%) did answer ‘occasionally’. For the Americas, there was only a small difference in the percentages between ‘frequently’ and ‘occasionally’. However, it must be noted that ‘all the time’ got the highest number of votes of women unionists in Brazil (30.7%). On the other hand, 40.3% of women unionists in Ghana felt that their unions addressed their issues only ‘rarely’, and in Romania and Morocco, ‘occasionally’ was ticked off by majority of respondents, 58% and 31.5%, respectively.

Non-unionised women

Respondents were asked to tick as many of the 13 reasons as to why they had not joined the union. If one of reasons ticked was ‘I left the union’, they were requested to explain why. The questionnaire also included the possibility of ticking “Others” and to provide the reason(s). It was difficult to determine how many of the 3,667 non-unionised respondents replied to this part of the questionnaire, as each respondent could tick as many factors as she considered valid. Thus, we added the highest number of respondents for a factor in each country and the total, 1,255, was used as the basis to calculate the percentages.

The most frequently ticked reasons were (highest to lowest):

1. Do not understand how union can help me 900 71.7%

2. Have no time because of family responsibilities 733 58.4%

3. No one has approached me 724 57.6%

4. Negative image of union 638 50.8%

5. Union not sensitive to my needs 533 42.4%

6. Male dominated 476 38.0%

7. Fear reprisal by employer 430 34.2%

8. Objections from spouse or family 343 27.3%

9. Membership dues 309 25.2%

10. Lack of self-confidence to join 259 20.6%

11. Left the union 235 18.7%

12. Legal constraints 192 15.2%

13. Other factors 116 9.2%

14. Religious/cultural constraints 94 7.5%

Among the reasons why women left the union were:

• Many senior officers are not unionised
• Time for union meetings not convenient
• Unsolved grievance/ineffective legal assistance
• Too much bureaucracy
• Re-structuring (union not adapting)
• Fear of reprisal by employer

Other reasons given for not joining the union were:

• No union at workplace (including liberal profession)
• Membership dues
• No need to join (no motivation)
• Trade union passivity

AFL-CIO

Several surveys targeted at working women have been conducted by the AFL-CIO in recent years: a popular survey (findings released in 2000) filled out by 25,000 women; a national random sample telephone survey of 765 women with oversamples of women of color; a study in 1996 on 4 focus groups to explore how working women respond to the concept of a broad working women’s advocacy organisation, and a random sample poll of the public. These surveys have found that:

• 34% of women think unions have leaders who are out of touch with the members as opposed to 40%  of women who think unions have leaders who are responsive to the members;
• 46% of women think unions make the economy stronger, while 23% of women think unions make the economy weaker;
• 42% of women think unions are innovative and change with the times, as opposed to 36% of women think unions are old-fashioned and backward-looking
• 49% think unions are mostly honest; 19%, are of the opinion that unions are mostly corrupt

Replies on the website

As mentioned earlier, 239 women filled the questionnaire on the ICFTU Website: 26 were from the United States, 21 from Canada, 19 from Australia, 6 from Norway and Great Britain, 3 from Spain, 2 from Afghanistan, India, New Zealand, South Africa and Pakistan, and one from Mexico, Ukraine, Philippines, Italy, Japan, Greece, France, Egypt, Denmark and Cape Verde. Where the rest came from could not be determined. Of these 65 stated that they belonged to unions; 36 said they did not. Of the 101 who indicated their age bracket: 41 were between 45 and 55; 21, between 25 and 34; 20, between 35 and 44; 12, between 15 and 24 and 7 were 55 yrs. and over.

The priority issues identified by the respondents were:

1. More control over work hours 39.3%

2. Higher pay 31.8%

3. Respect on the job 28.0%
Career development & training 28.0%

As to whether unions addressed these priorities:

• 38.6% answered ‘all the time’
• 34.6% “ ‘frequently’
• 20.8% “ ‘occasionally’
• 5% “ ‘rarely’, and
• 1% “ ‘never’

The most frequently ticked reason for not joining the union were from highest number of answers).

• No one has approached me
• Union not sensitive to my needs as working woman
• Negative image of union
• Male dominated
• Do not understand how union can help me

24 women indicated ‘other factors’, including

• No union at my workplace (most frequent)
• Unions too aggressive; not focused on professional development.
• Contract worker with 4 different jobs/temporary/part-time worker

Conclusions

At the outset, it must be borne in mind that the survey was the first such activity undertaken by the ICFTU; hence, its ‘pilot’ character. Exciting as the experience turned out to be, the WCPG and the Secretariat underestimated the amount of work it would entail, both at national and international levels. And the very limited time for the exercise – barely three months, including the Christmas holidays – explains partly why only five countries, Peru, Brazil, Japan, Romania and Czech Republic (which had 2,125 respondents!) could make the target of 1,000 women. Three, Great Britain, Norway and Morocco, were able to reach more than 850 women. The survey in Italy was supposed to be carried out by the three affiliates; however, only the CGIL sent in their summary. Similarly, only one of two participating Lithuanian affiliates, the LFTU, carried out the survey. The MTUC Malaysia sent out the questionnaire to its federations and received only 35 back.

However, even with the relatively small number of respondents, it would be fair to say that, given the wide geographical and sectoral coverage, the survey does give a picture of a) what working women in the world want, b) what they feel about their unions; and c) what unorganised women think of unions. The findings of the AFL-CIO surveys and the responses on the Website confirm those of the survey.

To sum up: the five priority issues for working women in the world today are: 1) higher pay, 2) job security, 3) respect on the job, 4) retirement security, and 5) more control over work hours. As to how unions address these issues, the less than 1% difference between ‘occasionally’ and ‘frequently’ should be noted, as should the fact that nearly 50% of union women respondents answered thus. Given the 1% difference between ‘all the time’ and ‘rarely’, and the very low score of ‘never’, one can assume that, in general, unions are responding to women’s needs.

The 5 principal reasons why women do not join unions are: 1) they do not understand how the union can help them; 2) they have no time because of family responsibilities; 3) no one has approached them; 4) negative image of union; and 5) unions are not sensitive to their needs. Moreover, the 6^th reason is because unions are male dominated. These findings confirm those of the survey carried out by the ILO amongst ICFTU affiliates in 1998-99. That the unions have an image problem, especially for women and young people, is no news. Much needs to be done to rectify this and, over the years, we have put forward a great number of proposals in this regard. That women workers do not understand how unions can help them is understandable, especially if they have not been approached by union organisers. An effective organising and communications strategy is, therefore, a must if we are to convince women to join the union.

While most of the survey’s findings might confirm what many of us already know, these can serve to guide us when setting our goals, planning strategies and determining our target groups. The findings proved particularly useful for the Millennium Review and the planning of the 3-year organising campaign “Unions for Women; Women for Unions”.