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Interview with Denise Britton, first vice-President of UNI Americas Regional Women’s Committee on the sidelines of the UNI Americas regional conference in Montevideo



By Sadia Kaenzig, from Montevideo



Denise from Trinidad and Tobago has been engaged in her country’s labour movement for the past 20 years in the Banking, Insurance and General Workers Union. In the past 4 years, she has dedicated her time for regional and global fights at UNI Americas. She is a certified financial adviser. 52 years old next month, mother of one daughter and recently married.

She is currently taking active part in the 3^rd UNI Americas Regional Conference where she delivered a powerful speech at the inauguration ceremony. She gives us her take on what has been achieved by UNI Americas Women in the last four years and the goals ahead for the next four years.



Sadia Kaenzig (SK): What are the activities undertaken by UNI Women to improve women workers lives in the Americas?



Denise Britton (DB) - It is fair to say that we have been consistent in our call for every women to have the right to be at work, and every working woman to have the right to be in a union, and for every working woman to have the right to be organised and represented across the labour movement. On the one hand, there is a revolution taking place in women’s lives, in families and in the workplace. On the other, our economies are becoming increasingly dependent on women as well as men working. Yet, there is a bleak picture as inequality and injustice are features that we see across the region. For instance, as more women are going out to work now, they remain in the majority underpaid for equal work in comparison to men. There is no doubt that women are contributing in a greater proportion to GDP in many countries, but they are carrying as well the brunt of being the primary caregivers to their children. They should not be treated as second class citizens at home, at work or in our unions. We call upon employers and unions to allow parents to fit their work around their family responsibilities not the other way round. Only women can put this on the front of the political agenda so we campaigned together for more women in trade unions, in political parties and in senior professional and managerial posts in the workplace to pave the way for such genuine change.



Today we are proud to say that we have achieved more rights around childcare; more rights for part-time workers and to request flexible work; more maternity leave and maternity pay; and new laws on domestic violence. We know perfectly well that we still have a long way to go and we must work together to make further progress.



SK - What are the current challenges and barriers you are facing?



DB - Well we still have the old problem of machismo that is widespread in our society. But there are new problems too. For one, too many women still struggle to find childcare which they trust and which they can afford. Two, work flexibility remains a real problem. Parents with a child should have the right to request flexible work. Third, exploitation of temporary workers in precarious and low paid work still continues. We must work with enforcement agencies and business to find ways to crack down on rogue employers. We believe that the hallmark of a strong economy is one which is not marred by discrimination but which can draw on the abilities of all its people.



SK - And how will you be able to overcome these challenges?



DB - Our approach as trade unionists in UNI is to seek collective agreements within multinationals that make equality part of these agreements. We have set key priorities. The first is to tackle violence against women. There is nothing excusable about violence against women anywhere or at any time. Nothing. I've seen many cultures, including my own, seek to justify this but it simply doesn't stand up to reason. This must be said squarely because this is a challenge across the region, and certainly my own. So we are engaging not only with women, but with men, and our aim from the regional women’s committee is to support trade unions to continue the work they are doing, and to continue to strengthen the partnerships and focus on the priorities that they have identified. The second priority is gender and environment. As you know, women are particularly hit by environmental degradation. We must seek to integrate women’s opinion and solutions into the planning of development projects. Investing in training and incentives remains important to increase their effective participation. And finally, our third priority is that we've got to get women organised. As vital as our campaigning work is, there can be no substitute for effective trade union mobilising in the fight against austerity. Recruiting workers into trade unions, encouraging them to get active, rebuilding our collective strength: that's what we've got to do now.



SK: Very impressive. Do you have one final message that you would like to convey to our global audience from where we stand in Montevideo?



DB - At a time when women are being hit hard by economic cut backs; when it is women who account for the majority of jobs being slashed across our public services; and when women are often being shoehorned into lower-paid work in the private sector -assuming we are lucky enough to find it - the case for stronger organisation is surely unanswerable. The way to bring women into the fold is to focus on the issues that matter most to them. So let's speak up for equal pay, better childcare and decent jobs. Let's show our commitment to ending violence against women. And where better to start than by encouraging trade union members to support the petition calling on our government’s to sign to the international Convention on Violence Against Women? Our call for action is easily summed up as: Every woman in every workplace: stronger together.