Trade unions are betraying women workers

[FindTheTruth]

the labour movement should be protecting everyone’s rights
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trade-unions-are-betraying-women-workers-7vnht2sq8

(sorry don't have a share token)

[Womansisterdaughtermother]

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b867711c-caf4-11eb-b255-82dcc5007185?Share Token=32e21888dc2ceec82f8e1e87b75894aa

[Womansisterdaughtermother]

Excellent opinion piece once again from The Times. Subscribe and let them know why!

[WhereAreWeNow]

The share token link isn't working for me.

[ErrolTheDragon]

See if this one works (the other does for me but I'm a subscriber)

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trade-unions-are-betraying-women-workers-7vnht2sq8?shareToken=ad7e48e604f2af1c1f9923792547b9d5

[FOJN]

That's a very good opinion piece. Great to see the Staniland question in the comments section.

[HeavenHotel]

Thanks errol thst one works.

Great piece!

[WhereAreWeNow]

Thanks @ErrolTheDragon. It's a good piece. I'm still paying my union dues but I share Sarah Ditum's view that unions have let women down badly on this issue. That line about allowing LGBT committees to dictate policy is so true. I thought that TUC tweet in response to Maya's victory was woeful. So mealy mouthed. How can an organisation that represents so many women and is led by a woman get it so horribly wrong?!

[fireproofwitch]

Thanks for the share token. It is an excellent article. It is very depressing to see how unions abandoned women.

[Floisme]

Thanks for the link. I'm absolutely disgusted with that TUC response. If I ended up in a dispute at work over this issue there's no way I'd involve my union.
I've been a member for 40-odd years and - in my workforce at least - we're a vanishing breed and it serves them right.

[FindTheTruth]

What I don't understand is why women pay subs to them and not start a new TU supporting all workers.

This Kiri Tunks speech is a good summary of the history (TUs started by women) and current situation (majority of members are women but women are not represented)
womansplaceuk.org/2020/03/10/you-ignore-us-at-your-peril-kiri-tunks/

Genuine question - why not start a new TU?

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

That's an excellent article by Sarah Ditum. Thanks for the share token, Errol!

[PearPickingPorky]

I have always felt that Unions don't help women to anywhere near the same extent as they help men. Male-dominated jobs seem to do very well out of unionisation, with regards to their pay and terms. However, look at female-dominates professions, despite unions, they don't get anywhere.

The sexism is institutional.

And then all this happened, and it really demonstrated starkly that unions have never had interest whatsoever in supporting the fair treatment of women.

[ValancyRedfern]

The only reason I stay in the NEU is because Kiri Tunks is in it.

[NCtitleofyoursextape]

Excellent article snd excellent point. Imagine if we’d had some common sense from unions, how much easier this would have been, but no, like every single other organisation, they hung women out to dry on this issue. Shame on them. This issue is why I stopped campaigning for the Labour Party.

[highame]

Unions were founded on the principle of a family wage. A man should earn enough to feed and look after his family. Those were the days when women worked in the home and men went out to work. When that changed, the unions were so entrenched that they never moved forward and I still think they work on the principle that men should earn enough for the family.

I am Labour (well, I've pressed the pause button) but I have never been pro union. Most of my arguments with my dad were about their lack of support for women (but I also had that gripe about Labour). I have never expected Labour to support me as a women but my hope has always been that they eventually would. The self-id debacle leaves me knowing that they never have and never will change.

There is no political party that supports me fully and entirely as a GC feminist.

[334bu]

Trade Unions have always been anti women. The Dagenham strikes were a prime example . Moreover, if the Care Workers in Glasgow had been predominantly men would it have taken them until 2019 to get equal pay? Aye right!

[CaptainSmartarse]

This is so what I have been thinking . I have always been an active trade union member . Been a rep before . Always felt proud that i was part of a movement that fought for a fair wage and conditions for working people , particularly women , black people and people with disabilities. That TUC tweet made me really upset . How bloody dare they ? The nature of my job (health care) and the fact i don't have a pot to piss in means that I need to be in a union. And they bloody well know that there are millions of us in this situation. What do we do ? I'm so bloody angry . I left Labour over a year ago after yearsbof activism . You couldn't pay me to vote for them . No one to vote for . What is the solution ? Female only trade union?

[CaptainSmartarse]

Agree 334bu , I'm Glasgwegian and that whole pay carry on was disgusting . Labour crooked women out of cash . I have family members who waited years for it and one who died before it was paid out .

[Totallydefeated]

Nothing new for the unions, they’ve always been about getting a decent wage for men. They’ve actively campaigned against women being treated equally before (Dagenham car workers) and stood back and done nothing for women many times over.

[Floisme]

This feels even worse than doing nothing though. That tweet felt like an implicit threat.

[FindTheTruth]

That tweet felt like an implicit threat.

Yes it's pretty ominous for a trade union to disagree with a legal judgement that all beliefs are protected, aka they believe women's beliefs are not 'worthy of respect'

[MountRushmore]

Clearly something in the air because I woke up this morning thinking what we need is a Women's Union. Inspired by the roots of the Labour party in the unions of the 19th century, the Women's Union is a place for support and information on education, racial equality, employment protection and rights, maternity and health, political representation and environmental concerns, a youth wing to inspire and support young women. It will represent Women's interest in the political and public sphere. There are chapters for all of these, many of them existing already in the form of FPFW, WPUK, SSA, etc so somehow they could continue their work, supported with subs from the Women's Union members?

It is a home for those left homeless by current political parties, and something to replace the vacuum left by the Fawcett Society and the Women's Equality Party. Subs can also be used to provide a legal fighting fund for all the cases that seem to be needed at the moment. Men can join as affliates, but its main programme is women centred.

It is a force to be reckoned with.

Off for a walk to work out the finer details. I'll have it sorted by lunchtime.

[FindTheTruth]

A force indeed @MountRushmore. look forward to hearing more

[RadandMad]

@MountRushmore

Clearly something in the air because I woke up this morning thinking what we need is a Women's Union. Inspired by the roots of the Labour party in the unions of the 19th century, the Women's Union is a place for support and information on education, racial equality, employment protection and rights, maternity and health, political representation and environmental concerns, a youth wing to inspire and support young women. It will represent Women's interest in the political and public sphere. There are chapters for all of these, many of them existing already in the form of FPFW, WPUK, SSA, etc so somehow they could continue their work, supported with subs from the Women's Union members?

It is a home for those left homeless by current political parties, and something to replace the vacuum left by the Fawcett Society and the Women's Equality Party. Subs can also be used to provide a legal fighting fund for all the cases that seem to be needed at the moment. Men can join as affliates, but its main programme is women centred.

It is a force to be reckoned with.

Off for a walk to work out the finer details. I'll have it sorted by lunchtime.

Just so long as it doesn't got the way of the Women's Equality Party!