Fighting Discrimination and Workplace Problems Facing Women

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اضيف الخبر في يوم الثلاثاء ٢٥ - نوفمبر - ٢٠١٤ ١٢:٠٠ صباحاً.

Fighting Discrimination and Workplace Problems Facing Women

Within the framework of the action plan laid for (The Permanent Conference of Working Women), the conference organized a seminar in the CTUWS office in Mahalla on Thursday the 20^th of November, 2014. It was attended by female workers from Samanoud Felt Company, Mahalla Textiles Company and Ministry of Education, to discuss the most crucial problems women face in their work and trade union and the obstacles that stand in their way when they attempt to integrate themselves in union struggles.

Worth noting is the fact that most of the participants are new union members since they have established their union recently. Consequently, most of the discussion was centered on the importance of the role trade unions play, and the workers need for them after their General Union failed to achieve their demands or support their struggles.

The Samanoud Felt Company female workers shared their experience with establishing a trade union which grew to represent almost 200 members, mostly women. They emphasized their need to become familiar with many skills that should qualify them for union struggles and for solving their problems in work especially since these workers suffer from unjustified suspension from work. And even though they have been working there for long years, varying between fifteen years and twenty two, the factory had shut them out under the pretext of money loss and failure to achieve the desired profits, which resulted in non-payment of salaries for almost a year and a half. This forced some of the workers to turn to domestic work and others to stay at home waiting for a suitable job which strained them financially since all of them support their families. Some are the breadwinners, and others were suspended along with their husbands who work in the same factory, leaving them with no source of income.

This may be one of the problems that consumed a long time in the discussion in an attempt to think of urgent solutions with the workers. However it was not the only problem under discussion. Other problems relating to the main subject of the seminar which is discrimination as a form of violence against women in their workplace and its effects on their performance and participation in union work were further examined.

The discussion addressed three main points that presented:

- Types of discrimination as a form of violence against women in society and work place.
- The effects of discrimination on the woman’s performance in work and her role within her family.
- Mechanisms to overcome “discrimination” as seen by working women.
- Participants confirmed that women were excluded from decision-making positions in their work although most protests were headed by women.

- Discrimination exercised by their superiors who always portray women as subjugated.
- Discrimination exercised by fellow female workers who try to defame and discredit women who participate in trade unions, portraying them as unfit for marriage and motherhood.
- Fatigue and exhaustion that women experience as a result of her different responsibilities in her work, her house and child-rearing.

- The discrimination both male and female workers face represented in the low quality health insurance; as not only is the quality lacking but there are also services that are completely not provided.
- One participant mentioned that her husband does not allow her enough space for public service, which encouraged others to empathize that husbands feel jealous if his wife excelled more than him either in work or in public service.

Participants attributed their problems to many factors including:

* Lack of awareness between women of their rights and how to gain them.

* Customs and traditions that place women in an inferior position.

* Legal and legislative imbalance that robs workers in general of their rights and women in particular.

The participants stressed that facing the aforementioned problems cause many complications such as:

# Emotional stress.

# Feeling incapable of work sometimes.

# Reluctance to participate in public service.

-They also empathized on how little experience some women have with union struggles. In addition, rate of female union members is still less than their rate in workplaces for fear of losing their jobs and defamation.

- Also, the small number of women in leading positions which they attributed to the general culture of society that render female presence unable to defend their rights in trade unions and fight discrimination.

The consequences of discrimination against working women in workplace and society:
The participants mentioned that the consequences of said discrimination are clear in:

- The absence of working women in trade union work which led to the absence of their demands and causes in union programs.

- The impact of said absence on their interests, resulting in women becoming more vulnerable to exploitation in public and private sectors, discrimination in employment, wages and promotions, and even laws that are drafted based on discrimination.

Society’s negative values affect the situation of working women leading to her being denied job opportunities, violations of her rights, deliberate marginalization and exclusion from all leading positions.

The seminar was concluded with a set of recommendations:

1- Working on solving the problem of Samanoud Company workers in every way possible in order to reach a solution that ensures their return to the factory and getting their wages.

2- The need to include the issue of discrimination in the training program targeting female workers.

3- Training on required skills for trade union work.

4- It was clear in the discussion that a disparity existed between participants in experience, information, and awareness on the causes of their problems and how to deal with them, which necessitates the need to train them in systematic analytic thinking, group work and negotiation skills.

5- The need to launch awareness campaigns for the public in general and women in particular in order to educate them on the importance of participation in trade union and how financially and emotionally rewarding it can be for women

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