Women and Unions

 

Background:

The focus of Women @ Unions is the morphing of union structure, culture, language and practices to ensure that these truly reflect the priorities and concerns of the majority of the AEU membership, that is women.

At Federal AEU Women's Conference in 1998 it was again raised that the vast majority of members of the AEU are women and their issues should be a fundamental part of the priorities of the union.

This approach also reflects the input from members contained in two national research projects “Building the Foundations of our Future” 1999 and TAFE 2001 “Facing the Challenge”. Through the two surveys key issues of concern and pertinence to women in their work and life were identified and an informed discussion has resulted within the AEU.

The 2001 Federal Women's Conference called upon the AEU to produce a document called Women@Unions which would bring a women's perspective to the ACTU document “Unions@Work, The Challenge for Unions in Creating a Just and Fair Society”.

The ground work in terms of recommendations for Women@Unions was developed at the 2001 Federal Women's Conference.

This document summarises these recommendations and also lists specific actions to be taken.

Process

Women @ Unions is written to be a working paper for the AEU Federal Executive and to be presented to each Branch/Associated Body Executive for discussion and debate.

It is envisaged that this working paper will also be distributed to each Branch/Associated Bodies Women's Committee.

At each Branch/Associated Body Women's Committee there will need to be debate, education, implementation and evaluation of this document and the recommended approaches.

This is an evolving document.

What has the AEU achieved for Women @ Unions during 2002?

  • Workshops have been run discussing Women@ Unions at women's conferences across the country.
  • Targetted Beginning Teachers through New Teachers' Conferences across Australia.
  • Engaged with Early Childhood Teachers through the establishment of a sub-committees.
  • Precarious employment in TAFE has been tackled through employing TAFE recruitment officers.
  • Schools recruitment officers have been employed for the general school sector, the majority of whom are women.
  • Utilised fax-stream, Skychannel (during industrial disputes) and are investigating video-conferencing. 
  • Face to face meetings in schools and branches are the AEU's major means of communicating to and listening to members concerns as well as a strong contingent of organisers in the field.
  • Developed a Women @ Work newsletter.
  • Campaigns have included superbuyback, women and promotion and paid maternity leave.
  • An initiative of one Women's Committee has been to establish a parenting room in the AEU building for use by members as well as officers and staff to show the AEU commitment to family friendly provisions.
  • The establishment of a women's contact position in each sub-branch where they don't already exist.
  • The development of a paid mentoring program for teachers with their employers.
  • Identified and addressed behaviour that impedes the process of a transparent, inclusive and democratic culture in the AEU and our workplaces.
  • Developing a women's log of claims to feed into the next round of Certified Agreements.
  • Employed a School Support Officer to recruit and organize SSO members, increasing their membership.
  • Development of information sheets for women on a number of issues such as flexible work options, family and maternity leave and women and health issues.
  • Relaunched the Anna Stewart Program.
  • Delivered localized union training.
  • Initiated Teacher Trainee scholarships in some Branches.

This page last updated 9 December 2009

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