Women in upper union positions vital
Female union leaders in the garment industry – where women constitute 90 per cent of the work force – are effective at bargaining for better working conditions, but their voices aren’t being heard in a union landscape dominated by men, a labour expert said yesterday. Veasna Nuon, co-author of Building Unions in Cambodia: History, Challenges, Strategies, said even in factories where women are elected as union leaders, they are often unable to effect much change because bargaining usually takes place further up the union chain, where men hold most positions of power. “In terms of union representation, there are more women at a lower level,” he said. “But the number of women elected at federation level is less than 10 per cent,” he said. “They have . . . almost nothing when it comes to national representation . . . men are making decisions for women.” Cambodia’s garment industry has an estimated 400,000 employees working in hundreds of factories. …
