African metal unions’ equality strategy [288]

Country/ Region	Regional
Countries of regional project	Countries chosen from southern, eastern and western Africa (according to preliminary mapping – South Africa, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Zambia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zimbabwe)
Project Period	2008 (pilot year)
Partners and target groups	International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), Finnish Metalworkers’ Union. Finnish Union of Salaried Employees (TU). IMF is responsible for realising the project, but in practice the planning seminars are organised by personnel from the regional office in South Africa in cooperation with project countries’ unions. The project will benefit target countries’ union members, especially female members and leaders as well as unions’ predominantly male leadership.
Background and justification	In June 2007 IMF arranged a workshop based on regional equality strategies, which clearly showed that it was necessary to deal with the prevailing unequal structures, attitudes and practices in member unions. The metal industry is a highly male-dominated field, which causes indifference and resistance to equality. Since equality is not a serious part of the unions’ agenda, matters relating to the issue are dealt with through very marginal structures which have no clear connection to unions’ key activities or resources. The concerns of the female minority in the field are therefore sidelined and women’s potential investment in strengthening the unions cannot be used beneficially. Unions would however have a reason to pay more equal attention to those who are predominantly underrated in heavy and dangerous work and to temporary and part-time working women’s rights. The predominantly male union leaders’ attitudes, especially in smaller unions, mean that opportunities for female members to participate are not seen to be significant to the development of the union as a whole. The amount of organisation among short-term and part-time workers is generally low, and with respect to women it is almost non-existent. Equality issues are also generally bound in many ways to cultural and societal structures, and the complex nature of problems makes them difficult to solve. IMF however trusts that information and trade union training that pays attention to equality issues can gradually change the situation to make things more equal. The adoption of practices that have already been observed to be beneficial in some unions can facilitate helping more old-fashioned unions to adopt more equal attitudes and operation models. The intention is to divide unions into groups or pairs in which those who have progressed further in equality matters will support changes in ”beginners”. It is assumed that women in weaker unions will be able to push through changes within their organisations through increasing self-confidence and learning from their neighbours’ experiences. The pair/group method also keeps the investment of IMF’s regional personnel within reasonable limits; the small staff would otherwise have difficulties in administrating the realisation of a broad-area project.
Objectives	The goal of the planning and pilot phase is to map how equality issues are taken into account in IMF member unions, formulate middle-term or long-term equality strategies and encourage unions’ female members to effect change in their own unions.
Project activities	A strategic planning seminar in June 2008 in Durban in South Africa deepened the understanding of the reasons for problems outlined in the 2007 report and search for solutions models using the experiences of the unions/countries that have made equality issues a top priority. The objective is to outline country-specific equality strategies. Twenty women from project countries’ unions participated in the seminar along with representatives from IMF, the Finnish Metalworkers’ Union and SASK. The division of the project countries into pairs and groups began in November 2008 in three small workshops in Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania. These will serve as a basis to formulate two-year activity programmes and a budget.