(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The trade union movement in Mozambique is a male bastion. According to the national organization OTM's women's movement COMUTRA, the goal is to get thirty percent women into the governing bodies of the trade union movement at all levels.
- But so far we are far from reaching this goal, explains Theresa Armando Touela Ghambe. We meet her at a union meeting in Coca Cola's premises in Maputo. Her association, SINTIAB – for employees in the food and beverage industry – has a regional meeting. Ghambe reports on the recruitment campaign among women. She is also running for re-election as regional representative on COMUTRA's central board.
Ghambe has been active in the trade union movement in Mozambique since 1976. The commitment to women's rights was guarded in 1994, and she joined COMUTRA in 1996. Today the membership is 44.000.
Equality on the road
She believes the equality work in the national organization OTM, Organizacao Trabalhadores de Mozambique, is on its way, but that at the same time it is far ahead. – Of the 14 unions that are affiliated with OTM, only one of them has a female leader at the national level, she says. The Supervisory Board of OTM has 60 members, only 14 are women. At the regional level, the situation is even worse. Only one of the provincial councils is led by a woman.
- But we are on our way to an arrangement where women are helped with babysitting if they want to participate actively in the union work, Ghambe proudly explains. Women can bring the youngest children to conferences, older children who go to school will have a babysitter at home.
One of the biggest challenges COMUTRA faces is women's low education. On average, just over 50 percent of the population is illiterate. Among women, the proportion of illiterates is far higher, almost 70 per cent if we believe the figures COMUTRA states.
- It is important to make women understand that they are much stronger in the fight for their rights if they join the trade union movement, she says, but admits that the recruitment campaign that has been going on for the past five years in the region shows meager results: A net gain of 207 new female members are the fruits of intensive work.
Ghambe still chooses to see the bright side: – After all, we have a positive result, she says, – because we are constantly losing members. When people lose their jobs, they can no longer afford to maintain their membership.
Same story everywhere
Everywhere we go we hear the same story: "I lost my job when the factory I worked in was privatized." "When the hotel I worked at was privatized, the new owners did not have the expertise to operate, so the hotel went bankrupt and the workplace disappeared."
According to OTM, 120.000 jobs have disappeared since the government in the country abandoned Marxism and switched to the market economy according to demands from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. More than 900 state-owned companies have so far been privatized, resulting in large job losses. It is serious in a country where unemployment is approx. 60 percent.
- Among women, it is far higher, claims Theresa Armando Touela Ghambe. – We do not have exact statistics, but believe that unemployment among women is 80 percent!
The market economy horse show works. On the paper. With 12 per cent economic growth in 2002, Mozambique is almost a success story. The only problem is that inflation is higher and purchasing power decreases. Most people get no part in the increase in wealth. The worst is it for the women, because they are extra vulnerable in the fragile labor market.
The myth of women
- Women's liberation gained momentum during the War of Independence and the Civil War. But since then, new generations of men have emerged and they are displacing women from the labor market. The reason is that women are claimed to be less productive than men. This is very serious because many women are single parents, either as war veterans or because their husbands have left them. Unemployed women are therefore being pushed into the informal sector. 70 percent of the employees here are women.
The myths that women are less effective than men in working life are not least due to the fact that the trade union movement has fought for new rights. All pregnant women are entitled to two months' maternity leave when they give birth to a child. An attempt to extend this leave period to three months met such strong resistance that it is currently on ice. In addition, everyone with toddlers is entitled to half an hour off each day during working hours so that they can feed the children.
Theresa Armando Touela Ghambe rejects that this makes women less effective: – Men have the same right, she says, – but they do not use it. Feeding children is unmanageable! In addition, we at COMUTRA are working to put in place a system of kindergartens near the workplace so that women do not lose so much time taking care of their children, she adds.
A consequence of these myths is that equal pay for equal work is far from being a reality in Mozambique.
It is therefore in their own interest that the women organize themselves in the largest possible number in the trade union movement. – Then it will be easier for us to be heard and we will have an easier impact on our demands. At the same time, we are strengthening the trade union movement as a whole so that it will be easier for ordinary people to get their share of the increase in prosperity in the country, she believes.
Knowledge and education
- One of our most important tasks in COMUTRA is to make women aware of their own rights and give them enough self-confidence to come to us with the case if they are exposed to injustice in the workplace. Education and knowledge are key words in this context. Women are often forced out of their jobs because employers prefer men. Sexual harassment is a widespread problem precisely because women are so vulnerable.
- We are exposed to sexual harassment both from male colleagues and from employers, she says. The latter situation, in particular, Ghambe believes is serious because jobseekers are being pressured into sexual services in order to obtain employment. And once they get the job, they have to provide sexual services to keep it.
- What else should they do when the whole group of children is dependent on the salary they take home, Ghambe asks rhetorically. In a country where it is estimated that 12 percent of the population is infected with HIV / AIDS, protection against sexual harassment can be a matter of life or death. In addition, effective protection against sexual harassment will save society large sums in relation to the loss of labor, expenses for medicines, the burden of providing for abandoned children and so on.
Here, the trade union movement can help by showing that there is legislation that protects workers, and that this can be used in the fight against oppression. – Our best means of combat is to educate people, and therefore we have adopted a rule that requires that at least thirty percent of the participants in all courses and seminars conducted under the auspices of the trade union movement must be women.
