Women, Work and the Changing Transport Industries

"The paper addresses some of the key issues facing women in the transport industries in recent years. In particular it examines the role of unions in pursuing equal job opportunities and working conditions in the world's transport industry. Using data available to the International Transport Federation (ITF) it looks at the changing face of the transport industry as the borders between different multinational companies disappear and the focus in transport employment changes from traditional operational occupations to logistics and the transport chain. In the context of the discussions that took place at the 2002 Congress in Vancouver, the Women's Committee of the ITF has promoted a two-tier policy that firstly, recognises that recruitment and organisation of women must be a priority for ITF unions, and secondly, demands that the ITF focus on how globalisation has led to changing employment structures that have specific gender effects. Women’s participation in the workforce has been increasing, but often as part-time and temporary workers and issues arising from these specific patterns need understanding and resolving. Union membership has also increased among women, but many of these new members are based in the public sector. A large proportion of the workers within the transport sector are in the private sector and their concerns may need to be addressed from a different perspective. In transport, the largest employment growth sectors have been areas where female employment is high, for example, air transport, the cruise industry and call centres. These are areas that can be called ’feminised’. However, union organisation here remains a challenge. These workplaces have low union density and high employee turnover. Criticism has also been levelled at trade unions for not keeping pace in terms of women's representation at senior levels - thus not encouraging female membership and not providing role models. Some unions, however, have been meeting these challenges and in several countries white-collar workers are now more likely to belong to a trade union than manual workers. It may be that additional measures are needed to face radical changes in the workforce. Many ITF unions have not yet addressed questions like organising informal workers, recruiting different groups of workers peripheral to their core membership, or organising in 'new' workplaces such as call centres. The challenges intrinsic in recruiting this different type of worker apply both to men and women, but the majority of the current target group are women. Other major challenges exist in making this shift. Strong cooperation with other global union federations and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) is necessary, for example, to ensure effective organising in call centre work. At the same time, the ITF's sectional structure, which clearly divides industry from industry, may in future make it practically difficult to work on multi-modal issues. Challenges to organising women internationally exist at the level of trade unions too, with the international message often failing to reach women workers."