Policy

Women, Gender & the Unions	Women, Gender & the Bosses
Policy	Gender Issues
Strategies	Gender demands
Developments	Gender policy
Assessments	Sectors of gender struggle
Gallery of women leaders

WOMEN GENDER & UNIONS - Policy

We have collected policy documents from one federation, COSATU, and three unions, NUM, NUMSA and NEHAWU.

Group Study

If you have access to the internet, search for policies of different unions.
If you are a member of a union, get copies of your policies.
When you have collected material, divide it up among your group members so that you each cover different unions or federations.
Read the documents on your union and draw a timeline of the development of policy.
Use this timeline to explain what took place to the rest of the group.
As a group, find common themes in the histories of the different organisations and identify and discuss what seem to be the most important ones.
Discuss how important those themes are today, in your experience.

As an individual exercise

If you have access to the internet, search for policies of different unions.
If you are a member of a union, get copies of your policies.
Trace the timelines of the developments in the different unions.

Available documents to download

(click on Learning Resource Number to download)

Learning Resource Number	Learning Resources	Description of Contents
B1.1	NUM news, Nos 20-21 - Women on the march - a woman's place is in the struggle - Disa Digital Imaging Project of South Africa	A 1987 NUM News article recording a Cosatu national resolution on women.
B1.2	Women workers Resolution on Women Workers	NUMSA 1987 Congress Resolution
B1.3	Work In Progress, Issue 61 - Challenging sexual expoitation - Disa Digital Imaging Project of South Africa	1989 Interview with Jane Barrett, TGWU, about resolutions to a recent COSATU Congress
B1.4	Speak, No 25 - The giant grows - Disa Digital Imaging Project of South Africa	1989 COSATU Congress positions on women's issues
B1.5	Work in Progress, No 77 - Taking gender seriously	1991 article: debate and decision on Gender Forums in COSATU
B1.6	Speak, No 66 - Building union women - Disa Digital Imaging Project of South Africa	1994, Speak, Report on COSATU Congress decisions on women's participation and leadership in the unions
B1.7	Cosatu code of conduct on sexual harassment	A 1995 Cosatu CEC code of conduct on sexual harassment in the unions
B1.8	NUM - Gender Perspective 1998	A 1998 NUM discussion paper for a policy workshop on 'Women, Work and the Union', a comprehensive range of women worker issues.
B1.9	NUM Women's Conference 2000	A 2000 NUM declaration on women, from an augural national women's conference
B1.10	South Africa Labour Bulletin: Cosatu Congress, progress for gender equality?	A 2000 SALB article which 'outlines Cosatu's new gender policy and its adoption at Congress'
B1.11	NUMSA Resolution	NUMSA 2000 Congress Resolution on Gender
B1.12	NUMSA Employment Equity Plan	A 2004 Resolution on NUMSA's Employment Equity and Workplace Skills Plans
B1.13	Nehawu Gender Strategy	Undated: A summary of Nehawu's national policy on gender issues.
B1.14	NEHAWU	2005: Nehawu current policy from its web page

“Knowledge is too Important

WOMEN GENDER & UNIONS - Policy