date: 04 March 2009

Report: UGTT Ben Arous and TUC Yorkshire and the Humber Seminar.

Women and Youth Participation.

October 2008.

This report is in relation to the above stated event at the Flora Park Hotel, Hammamet, Tunisia attended by seven reps from the TUC Yorkshire and the Humber region between 26 October and 2 November 2008. The delegation was led by Regional Secretary Bill Adams. The primary purpose of the seminar was to build links between the TUC and the Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail (UGTT) in areas of common concern to both groups with particular attention paid to issues concerning women and young members.

Established in 1946 by founder Ferhat Hached, the UGTT are the dominant force in Tunisian trade unionism but differ from the TUC in that they are a union in their own right representing workers across the board.

The UGTT region we visited is Ben Arous, close to capital city Tunis in the North,and is active in the industrial sector, the public sector, engineering, factories,

petroleum, chemical manufacturing and teaching.

Though a geographically small area—it is one of the smallest governorates (provinces) of Tunisia—they have 1,200 members of which 28% are women and high numbers of youth participation.

The course covered political representation, reduced inequality and understanding the difficulties and barriers in each country facing trade unionists.

We also covered EU law, introduced with a lecture by Mr. Adams, and the development of the equality agenda in the UK and how that canhelp to raise trade union membership amongst women.

The course was jointly tutored by Catharyn Lawrence from the UK, a tutor with the TUC and Seham a primary school teacher and UGTT trainer and women’s representative from the Central Eastern region. Translators were in place to help with the language barriers, allowing constructive dialogue betweenEnglish, French and Arabic speakers.

When discussing the key challenges we face within our own regions, it was clear that Tunisia is far more advanced than some may have anticipated. While we appreciate that changing traditional attitudes to gender equality may prove more difficult, this is nonetheless impressive

when we compare Tunisia to its other North African neighbours.

The workforce in Ben Arous faces similar problems to what we’re facing today: fears about unemployment, empowerment of workers to exercise their rights, outsourcing, as well as a struggle to get women and young workers to participate in union activities. We found that they are very open to change and welcome the opportunity to meet with other regions and countries to learn and develop new strategies to help improvement.

The main barriers the union reps face on a day to day basis include reduced health and safety focus, shortages of essential working equipment, skills-assessed pay and limited support for disabled workers – who are often considered a burden to employers.

For women, the maternity rights are poor in comparison with what has been secured in the UK. Whilst a woman’s first priority is considered to be her family and her children, the maternity leave offered amounts to only two months from the date of birth. Also, a woman must work up to the day of going into labour. After this, a woman may return to work on a part-time basis,

though on only 2/3 of her previous pay.

The UGTT is very proud of its feminist traditions within the movement. It has historically been the vanguard on issues of women’s liberation amongst the Arab nation states. Tunisia was the first to defend women’s rights and discrimination and continues to challenge the—sadly widely held—belief that a Tunisian woman lacks rights to gender equality and has no rights other than to stay at home to raise a family.

Organisation is very good within UGTT workplaces. Each sector has its own women’s representative. In the region of Ben Arous, there is a Culture Cafe where women meet on a regular basis to discuss issues and topics which affect them in the workplace. These can include sexual harassment and the threat of unemployment.

One of the main priorities of the women’s committee is to arrange trips to visit other regions to meet with other trade union women for education

or social events which help build a network of support.

Of course, as is often a problem with release for our own union activities, employers in Tunisia are also often reluctant to release employees to attend such events. This pushes meeting times to evenings and impacts on family life and the safety of women travelling home alone at night.

Despite this, the women we met are fiercely independent and are campaigning hard for gender equality. They are very optimistic for the future. The women’s forum today is only consultative with very limited power, mainly due to the social attitudes of the voting workforce. Men will vote for male leaders, and there is widespread anecdotal evidence that women too view men as the better leaders.

To change this mentality, they are trying to implement activities to target change and for women to be accepted at an executive level. This was a very delicate topic to discuss.

Communication to non-members is also an issue. The unemployed cannot join the UGTT but are invited to attend events such as the Labour Day celebrations which are open to all. Events like this are essential in

providing communication channels to inform people of their burgeoningcollection of rights. Women often do not have time to read magazines or watch television and the lack of space to speak freely can mean they do not have the knowledge of their rights and entitlements. The media has a very important role in society and unions, although this should be extended.

Similar problems are faced in relation to young workers. It is a struggle to reach out to engage them in union activities, the leaders themselves admitting that they find it difficult to identify with the youth and they feel they are not in the best position to recruit.

We discussed the advances we have benefitted from within the UK trade union movement and agreed a way forward which will strengthen our links and improve the situation, helping to develop women and youth roles within the UGTT.

Firstly, the UGTT had a list of objectives to achieve such as open days inworkplaces for gender equality and the use of films and presentations inexhibitions at regional and national events. These can serve to focusawareness for protection against industrial diseases and educate workers on their health and safety rights.

Here within our region, we are intending to work together to restart the TUC Young Members Network meetings and attend these and the women’s forums to feedback on our visit, to share what we’ve learnedand encourage others to help support development of UGTT activity.

We also hope to implement a joint Day of Unity for workers’ rights. Activities would be held in both the Yorkshire and the Humber and Ben Arous regions.