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Over 130 women from across the Americas congregated in Medellin at the UNI Americas Women's Conference to discuss issues such as gender inequality, closing the gender pay gap and particularly, violence against women.

The World Health Organisation estimates that 1 in 3 women suffer from violence and that it is the leading cause of death among women aged 16-44 years.

Deputy General Secretary of UNI Global Union Christy Hoffman said, “I am ashamed that women still suffer from sexual harassment in the workplace. When I started working, there was an attitude that sexual harassment was part and parcel of the world of work.”

“In this day and age, we cannot accept that sexual harassment at work is still happening. We do not want that world for our daughters, so let’s finish this fight. We have a President Elect of the United States that says that you can sexually harass people if you’re big enough and rich enough. We must put an end to this sleazy rhetoric.”

“We must follow the lead of the 27 million women who took to Twitter to oppose Trump’s viewpoint by detailing their own cases of sexual harassment and hold people accountable for harassment.”

Brazilian expert on domestic violence, Rosemary Correa said, “Men and women must work together to eradicate violence of all forms. We should seek to protect women against violence through governments, NGOs, unions and by ensuring that companies act to protect women who are subjected to domestic abuse and sexual harassment.”

The UNI Women’s Conference agreed a strategy for UNI affiliated unions to combat gender violence by:

1. Demanding governments create mechanisms to prevent and combat violence against women in all forms.
2. Promoting campaigns between businesses and society to raise awareness of eradicating gender violence.
3. Demanding companies include the issues in all discussions pertaining to the health of workers and equal opportunities.
4. Encouraging discussion on the issue with their employees and members