Women's rights and workers' rights

As a recent report by the Canadian Labour Congress points out, an increasing number of Canadian women face poverty and roadblocks as workers and as parents.

The CLC report  is informative and disheartening.

In 1977 the United Nations declared March 8th to annually mark International Women’s Day: yet 30 years later Canadian women continue to face gender-based challenges, some of them from the federal government itself.

Since assuming power in January 2006 the Harper government has cut 43% of Status of Women Canada’s operating budget, closed 12 out of 16 regional offices, eliminated funding for research and advocacy for women’s equality and tore up the federal-provincial child care agreements; replacing them with a per-child cash subsidy which has done nothing to address the chronic shortage in Canada of affordable, quality daycare.

What can unions do to help?

Political activism is one responsibility. So is providing the unorganized with the tools to get organized, for as the report points out women in unionized workplaces have done far better over the last 30 years than their non-unionized sisters.