last updated September 20, 2005
This section discusses different strategies that trade unions and other workers’ associations can employ to combat sexual harassment in the workplace.The section includes discussion of workers’ associations, which may be more broadly defined than trade unions but can be equally as dedicated to women’s issues and preventing sexual harassment. For a discussion of sexual harassment, law, and resources, see http://www.stopvaw.org/Sexual_Harassment.html. For a discussion of the role of trade unions in general in sexual harassment issues, see http://www.stopvaw.org/The_Role_of_Trade_Unions_and_Collective_Bargaining.html.
Making progress in the area of sexual harassment is important to women making other gains in the workplace. Sexual harassment makes it more difficult for women to see progress in areas such as affirmative action, child care, and pay equity. Additionally, it is more difficult to build unity in a workplace plagued by sexual harassment. One reason, according to Camille Colatosi and Elissa Karg, Stopping Sexual Harassment, A Handbook for Union and Workplace Activities,” 1992, 77 (this is an excellent resource that is available for purchase online at http://www.labornotes.org/bookshelf/ssh.html.) is that it causes high job turnover, making it more difficult to organize.
Many countries agree, as according to http://www.stopvaw.org/Employer_Responsibilities__Sexual_Harassment_Policies__Trainings_and_Complaint_Procedures.html, that the best way to combat sexual harassment is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Our website, http://www.stopvaw.org/Employer_Responsibilities__Sexual_Harassment_Policies__Trainings_and_Complaint_Procedures.html, contains recommended information for employers’ responsibilities to create effective sexual harassment policies, hold effective trainings, and create effective complaint procedures. This section builds on those recommendations in the context of trade unions. This advocacy section refers largely to union techniques used in the United States. These techniques will, of course, need to be adapted to local situations.
Countries such as the United States that have specific legislation and case law on sexual harassment have only developed this body of law and practice relatively recently. Even use of the term “sexual harassment” is a relatively recent phenomenon. Trade unions and workers’ associations have been instrumental in bringing the issue to light. Past examples of the success of such unions and associations can provide helpful starting points for countries, trade unions, and workers’ associations that are beginning to seriously address such issues.
For example, 9 to 5, National Association of Working Women, started in the U.S. in 1973, when a group of Boston office workers got together to discuss issues that didn’t even have a name, such as sexual harassment. According to http://www.feminist.com/9to5.htm, the association grew to be the national organization in the U.S. committed to getting working women’s issues on the public agenda.
This section on sexual harassment and trade unions will not discuss sexual assault in particular. However, some of the ideas on using unions to combat sexual harassment may be adaptable to combat sexual assault. Our website, http://www.stopvaw.org/Sexual_Assault.html, also has a detailed section on sexual assault in the workplace and how to fight it. Additionally, the union AFL/CIO has a website on sexual assault in the workplace, http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/women/violence.cfm, with a list of resources from union, government, and other organizations. | 