Women's Equality
Some of the work that the Women's Consultative Committee has been involved with include:
A Charter for Women - The Committee have been looking at ways of implementing the Charter within ASLEF. The Charter calls for a number of demands that the majority of TUC affiliated unions in the UK are supporting. ASLEF is represented on the Charter for Women Steering Group The Steering Group is currently encouraging unions not affiliated to the Charter to sign up.
Maternity Rights - the WCC are supporting the EOC 'Jelly Babies' campaign which is raising the issue of women (30,000 a year) who lose their jobs because they become pregnant. The WCC is also producing some best practice guidelines from the policies produced by the TOCs and FOCs. The Best Practice Guidelines have been placed before the Executive Committee and are likely to be the next policy document 'rolled out' by the committee.
International Women's Day - The WCC are campaigning for this to become a bank holiday for all UK workers. They took a motion to the TUC Women's Conference in 2005 which was successfully carried. This year the WCC held an event at the TUC Women's Conference in Scarborough. The 'Celebration Beach Party' was held not only to raise the issue of ASLEF's campaign to achieve IWD as a bank holiday for all UK workers, but to raise the plight of sisters in the Western Sahara and the 'Sandblast' campaign (see information below). The event was a great success and much enjoyed by all who attended it. The WCC would like to thank all those branches and districts that contributed to this event. With the help of sisters from the FBU donations of £350 each were sent to Sandblast and to the War on Want Western Sahara campaign.
Cancer Screening - The WCC delegate to ASLEF annual conference (AAD) 2005 successfully moved a motion calling for all time off for cancer screening to be paid leave paid for by the employers. This motion gained the complete support of conference as it was not only mean breast and cervical cancer screening, but prostate and testicular cancer. Health and Safety has been a priority for the WCC members for some time, and they have particularly raised concerns about health and safety issues specific to women e.g. Toxic Shock Syndrome
Psychometric Testing - The WCC delegate to AAD 2006 successfully carried a motion calling for the end to all psychometric testing unless it can prove to be bias free. This campaign has been a joint campaign with the Black and Ethnic Minority Consultative Committee (BEMCC). The committees feel that most psychometric testing could be biased against women and people for whom English is not their first language. They could be used to weed out 'atypical' drivers and it is unclear to the committees how they help in the recruitment of drivers.
International issues:
Colombia -The WCC have been supporting trade union sisters in Colombia who are face daily imprisonment and 'disappearance' because of their trade union activities. Justice for Colombia's offices are based at ASLEF head office.
Western Sahara - The WCC are supporting the Sandblast Campaign - supporting people of the Western Sahara who are being forced to live in camps in some of the most inhospitable conditions on earth since Morocco invaded their territory in the 1970s.
The Womens Consultative Committee produces a newsletter called 'Sisters on the Move'. This is available to all women members, if you do not recieve your copy please contact Head Office on 020 7317 8600. Alternatively you can view a copy online.
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Womens equality in 2008
Read the report from the 2008 Womens TUC Conference which took place in Eastbourne from 12th to 14th March. Click here.
Womens equality in 2007
The 2007 Womens TUC conference took place in Scarborough from the 14th to 16th March, read the report here. Lyrics to 'Calamity Train', performed at the Womens TUC by the ASLEF delegation.
Labour Party Conference Sept 2007 - Pauline Cawood, Women’s Consultative Committee (WCC) member for District 4 and National Secretary of the WCC took on the Transport Minister at this year’s Labour Party Conference and came out on top.
Pauline was so incensed at Transport Minister Ruth Kelly’s lacklustre response to the threat of longer and heavier vehicles (LHVs) at the Freight on Rail fringe meeting that she was heard to say. ’I’m not having this – hold my bag’. She then marched over to Ruth Kelly and challenged her about her response.
Ruth was so impressed by Pauline and the force of her arguments that she now wants to visit Pauline at her work (Northern Rail) to see the trains that she drives.
Pauline also raised a question about LHVs to the Transport Minister on the floor of conference to which the Minister responded that she will need ‘a heck of a lot of persuading to allow LHVs (European 40-60 tonne lorries) on UK roads’. Congratulations Pauline on your timely intervention!
Gillian McVittie attended the 2007 STUC womens conference. Read her report here
Womens equality in 2006
Pauline Cawood attended the first ever International Transport Workers Conference in Durban, Sout Africa. Read the report here.
Gillian McVittie represented ASLEF at the 2006 STUC Women's Conference. Read the report here.
The Womens TUC Conference took place between the 8th - 10th March 2006. Read the conference report here.
Pauline Cawood, ASLEF's first woman to be elected to the TUC Women's Committee, attended her first committee meeting on 9th May 2006. Click here to read her report.
