On International Women's Day on March 8, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) launched a new three-year campaign with the goals of doubling the number of women in the trade union movement and leading the fight for social justice.

The "Unions for Women, Women for Unions" campaign, to be conducted in conjunction with the Global Unions Federations, will involve issues such as equal pay, job security, and respect and value for all types of women's work, including temporary, casual, part-time, and home-based. Other issues include equal opportunities and treatment at work, health and safety at work, and recognition of legal and social protection for vulnerable groups, such as migrants, ethnic minorities, and the informal work sector.

Canadian Labour Congress Secy.-Treas. Nancy Riche, who serves as an ICFTU vice president and chairs the ICFTU's Women's Committee, said that, among the obstacles faced by women are "less education than men, no equal access, discrimination and abuse, low pay, and precarious jobs," such as atypical and casual jobs.

"One of the worrying facts that we face is that many women live in poverty even if they have jobs," Riche said. "This is especially true when you look at examples such as export processing zones (EPZs), which are composed mainly of a women workforce and where extremely precarious conditions are often combined with a derisory salary."

In these areas, which are often fenced off and patrolled by security guards and where the workforce may be imported from other nations, union representatives have very little access to workers, Riche noted.

Riche said that women also "make up a significant majority of the informal economy, an area which provides work to women who need to accept any job – no matter what – in order to feed their families. But often this will be work with no social protection or rights. They are 3-D jobs: dangerous, degrading, and dirty."

While these conditions prevail in lesser developed nations, Riche said, even in highly developed European nations, women still have unequal education levels and are "still seen as the 'reserve army' for the labor market."

Riche said the CLC will be extensively involved in the ICFTU campaign, including the production of a new magazine called "1+1" that will be placed in doctors' and dentists' offices and media outlets. The publication will "tackle issues such as unemployment insurance and women's rights in the workforce," Riche said, adding that it will be full of articles explaining what trade unions can do for women.