What are the aims of the coalition you are representing at the ICFTU Women’s Conference?

WICEJ is an international coalition representing organisations in all regions of the globe. WICEJ works to link gender with macroeconomic policy in international intergovernmental policy-making arenas, from a human rights perspective. We utilize an integrated feminist analysis which links the multiplicity of systems that oppress women, and recognizes the diversity of women’s experience by race, ethnicity, class, national origin, citizenship status and other factors. We work to further develop this integrated analysis across regions and experiences, and to bring these perspectives to bear through policy advocacy, educational activities and popular resources. We seek to bring a stronger economic analysis to women’s issues and a stronger gender analysis to social and economic issues in the international arena. We seek to bring our local perspectives on gender and economic issues to the international arena, and conversely, to bring our shared analysis from the international arena back to our regions and national communities.

What form of cooperation does your coalition have with the trade union movement?

For 3 years now, our coalition has been working with the ICFTU office in New York and with Public Services International (PSI). We have also had contacts with the American confederation AFL-CIO. We have worked particularly closely with PSI on supporting women workers in hospitals and other public sector jobs. We find it very useful to work with the unions to get governments to pay more attention to ILO core labour standards and to human rights, and we lobby the UN to that end. The ICFTU and PSI have valuable and unique expert knowledge of ILO labour standards.

In our networking activities on migrants’ rights and on maquiladoras, for instance, women trade unionists make a valuable contribution.

Can you give us a concrete example of that form of cooperation?

In Texas (USA), a group of women working in a textile factory (Levi Strauss), most of whom were Latin-American immigrants, fought to join the American textile workers’ union Unite, which has a huge majority of women members (97%). It took some time, but in the end the International Textile Federation (ITGLWF) supported the workers’ action. The factory eventually closed down, in order to relocate, but the women workers received some compensation. Similar groups of women workers have also been trying to receive that kind of support.

The delegates were discussing relations between unions and NGOs yesterday. What did you think of that discussion?

The discussion on the unions’ work in the informal economy and the whole debate on collaboration or competition with NGOs were very interesting. It showed the wide range of views on that issue. We have already experienced this range of attitudes and some of the problems that can result from them. Some unions are very interested in working with migrant workers, whilst others are not at all interested, perhaps owing to legal barriers to the unionisation of migrant workers or perhaps owing to racism, poor communication or cultural and linguistic barriers.

It is very important to have a forum like this conference to discuss these matters and to learn about other people’s ideas and practical experiences. Positive experiences can take time to develop and often depend on a combination of personal relationships and the policy positions of the national trade union centres.

How do you expect relations between unions and NGOs to develop?

I think that spontaneous organisation of women workers outside union structures has had a clear effect in developing the unions’ awareness of the need to reflect on such cooperation. The unions themselves are increasingly aware of the need to meet the demands of women workers. But that will require informing women about the unions and their work, which will in turn mean increasing exchanges between the unions and organisations working with women.