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Asia Pacific Regional Women Leadership in Trade Unions
Training
18-
21 December 2014, Chiang Mai, Thailand
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS IS 17 October 2014, Friday.
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) will convene
the Asia Pacific Regional workshop “Women Leading, Women Organising” in
Chiang Mai, Thailand from 18 to 21 December 2014. This pilot,
participatory workshop will focus on enhancing the capacity, leadership
and voice of women in trade unions across the Asia-Pacific region.
Context:
In the past fifty years women’s participation in the labour market has
rapidly increased, particularly in Asia.
Women account for 1.2 billion of the world's 2.9 billion workers, an
increase of nearly 100 million women since 2004. Yet much of this
work has been in informal, low paid and poorly unionised sectors. Women
in Asia predominantly work in domestic work, the garment
industry, service industries and agricultural subsistence farming.
Labour migration has also become increasingly feminized in the region
with women migrant workers amongst the most exploited and under
unionised in a globalised, de-regulated labour market.
Economic growth in Asia has largely rested on the shoulders of poorly
paid women. Asia’s gender pay gap is the largest of all regions
with no progress made to close the gap for over a decade.
Discrimination in law and practice persists, women continue to
face sexual harassment, exploitation and face life threatening
occupational health and safety risks.
The exploitation of women workers in Asia
is deepened by the intersections of patriarchy and neo-liberal economic
models that promote globalisation. Policies of deregulation,
privatisation and trade liberalisation have magnified inequalities and
diminished all elements of the decent work agenda including, rights to
living wages, decent conditions, health and safety, association and
representation, to organize, to collectively bargain and to strike.
Trade unions are a critical space to achieve decent work, women’s human
rights and challenge inequitable economic policies. Trade unions
can provide a channel for women to exercise democratic and political
rights both within their workplace and in shaping national policies and
movements. However, women remain under-represented as members,
organisers and leaders in the trade union movement. Despite increases
in women’s membership only a small number of women hold
leadership positions in the trade union movement.
Recognising the multiple challenges women union leaders face and the
importance of trade unions to advance women’s human rights, APWLD will
begin trade union leadership training for women organisers and
leaders.
Objectives:
1) To enhance the leadership, voice, influence and
capacity of women in trade unions
2) To promote feminist / gender justice in trade
union structures, programs and campaigns
3) To increase trade union organising in labour
sectors dominated by women
4) To increase the capacity of women trade union
leaders to advance principles of development justice at national,
regional and international levels
Methods:
The training will use participatory methods and draw from the
experiences and existing knowledge of participants. The training will
focus on trade unionism and work; women, work and trade unions in the
context of globalization, fundamentalism, militarism and feminist
development justice.
Selected participants will draw from a menu of proposed topics to
determine the skills, knowledge and strategies they would most like to
develop. Areas may include: organising methods; feminist analysis of
work; the decent work agenda; leadership skills for women; development
justice.
People
can apply based on the following criteria:
- APWLD
members as well as non-members from across Asia Pacific may apply.
- Women
delegates, organisers, trade union leaders (both registered and
un-registered, informal unions or associations are eligible)
- The workshop and learning material will be in
English. Applicants who are not proficient in English may be
considered where another participant can support translation.
Trade unions may nominate two participants with one being an
English speaker.
Participants
will be selected based on the following considerations:
- Balance in sub-regional representation from
Asia-Pacific.
- Preference given to individuals with
institutional/ union affiliations and/or recommendations from
APWLD network.
- The participant group size will be limited to
25.
Expectations
and obligations of participants:
All
participants will be expected to
- prepare for the workshop by collating national
information and their own case studies
- actively participate and share knowledge,
expertise and experiences
- develop a personal action plan at the end of
the training
- maintain contact with APWLD and colleagues in
the training to exchange experiences and practices that result
from the training
Procedure:
All applicants should submit a completed application form and send it
along with their Curriculum Vitae.
The recommending institution/organisation should certify that the
person recommended has worked in or aspire to involve in leadership
roles and decision making positions within the organisation and is
committed to applying the core learning points of the training in her
future work.
Cost
of the Training and Sponsorship:
APWLD will cover costs of boarding and lodging for the 4-days training
period. In addition, APWLD will also cover costs of discounted economy
airfare, visa fee, airport tax, travel tax. All additional travel
related expenses must be informed by the participant to APWLD
beforehand for approval or participant will not be reimbursed for those
expenses.
Only selected candidates will be contacted for further details.
To apply, email completed application form, together with your CV and
endorsement letter from your organization to APWLD to the attention of:
Wint Thiri Aung (Ms.)
wint@apwld.org; and CC buai@apwld.org
and apwld@apwld.org
For applications through email, please indicate in the subject line
“Application for Regional Women Leadership in Trade Unions Training
2014”
Application
must be lodged no later than Friday 17 October 2014.
INCOMPLETE APPLICATIONS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED
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