The world history of women in labor

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  The social division in general of world labor

  Documents for the ICFTU Rio di Janeiro conference, May 1999

Women workers the worst victims of global restructuring

ICFTU Online, 13 June 1997. As governments dismantle their public services and multinational companies look for the cheapest workers, women are increasingly in the front line of anti-union repression. The ICFTU's Annual Trade Union Rights Survey details how women workers are victimised by public sector decimation and through global restructuring.

Mujer a Mujer: Firsthand Account of Levi's

From Fuerza Unida, 4 January 1998. Reprint of an older article Mujer a Mujer in Canada wrote about Fuerza Unida, and an interview. Example of why globalization is projecting women to the center of the global struggle of labor and how a group of women respond.

Bread and Roses: The rising of the women be means the rising of the race

The complete words to Bread and Roses. Words by James Oppenheimer and music by Caroline Kohsleet, 6 March 1998. The lyrics and chords of a song that has become very popular in the struggle of women workers.

Women Workers: Still fighting for the right to organise

ICFTU OnLine...., 6 March 1998. Women now make up nearly 50% of the labour market and 35% of union members. A new ICFTU report launching a campaign, Claiming their Rights, charts women workers' battles with governments, employers, and sometimes with their male colleagues in their fight for union rights. Women workers are becoming increasingly militant.

Women and unions: Contribution to organized labour 2000

By Linda Briskin, York University, Canada, 8 February 2000. This examines the impact of women's organizing on union transformation, and, given that increasing competition among workers is at the heart of restructuring and globalization, both equity and solidarity must be central to union strategies.

Organizing Women

By Elizabeth Goodson, ILO, 8 February 2000. Women have not achieved equal status with men within the trade union movement. If trade unions are to be credible to women regarding their commitment to promoting equality as a basic human right, they must be able to show that equality is an integral part of their own policies and structures.

Women to shape future of trade union movement - global survey launched

ICFTU OnLine...., 23 January 2001. A major survey of working women all over the world launched by the ICFTU to help the it build up a picture of what women see as the most important issues related to their jobs [see next document].

Will ICFTU survey ensure women shape the future of the international trade union movement?

By Peter Waterman, 26 January 2001. This ICFTU initiative [above], like acquiring a Social Clause in the WTO and a 'union' domain name on the internet, indicates an institutional intention of goodwill rather than a serious international social movement strategy.