Trade Unions and Women Workers
In a country like Sri Lanka, trade unions have been the traditional form of organising the workers, irrespective of whether the workers in question are men or women. Since independence (1948) the Trade Union movement in this country enjoyed a rich heritage of a very high degree of organisation. Trade unions in Sri Lanka have almost always been organised by and controlled by political parties. Every party would have its own trade union which would function independently of other trade unions. Workers are organised along line of industry or trade. Workers in a particular factory can belong to several different trade unions — each worker choosing the trade union she/he prefers. As a result each factory can have several trade unions functioning within it.
The structure of the trade union has always been male. The key positions of President, Secretary and treasurer have always been held by men while there are one or two women who might sit on the executive body of the Union. There have been ironic instances where the membership of trade union dominated by women' (ranging up to 85% - 90%) but men continue to dominate, control and structure it according to their particular demands.
The control exercised by the political party which is responsible for setting up the trade union is subtle but has been seen as the main reason or one of the main reasons for the situation that exists in the trade union movement today. Often, decisions taken at the level of the central committee of the particular political party in question seek to be implemented in the trade union. The political parties too have almost always been male-dominated. Thus the total reflection on the trade unions has been male oriented. It is not surprising therefore, that the trade union movement in this country has rarely, if ever, took up demands specific to women workers. In the trade union movement, women has always been regarded as labour only and not as a specific section of the labour force, oppressed because of their sex.
Thus workers, irrespective of their sex, have been mobilised around general working class demands only e.g. wage increases, production targets, etc. Questions such as equal wages, maternity leave, child care facilities have hardly ever been discussed in the trade union circles.
After nearly 50 years of working long hours and carrying the triple burden of being a woman, worker and Indian Tamil, a plantation female labourer earns less than her male companion who works less hours in less arduous form of work. It was only in 1984 that equal wages was introduced and only after a considerable period of strikes and struggle.
Another example in this context is the introduction of the law permitting night shift work for women. The International Labour Organisation clause 98 was rescinded by the present Government (which came into office in 1977) with little or no resistance from the trade union movement. With the exception of one or two trade unions, this was not considered as an important issue and the cabinet approved the law with little opposition from the trade unions in March 1984.
It is evident by this course of events that women have not only been denied representation in the leadership levels of the trade unions, but also that their specific problems have rarely been taken up within the movement
This in no way implies that women have not fought, struggled and won their demands. Women workers have always fought around demands pertaining to their working conditions or general working class issues. Given their particularly oppressive conditions, women are found to be stronger in the face of state repression, join their strength and move fast to achieve their demands. There have been examples of women who were beaten up by the police, tear-gassed, arrested but stood firm together on their demands, not moving until they were met.
Women's Organisation
The independent organisation of women is a more recent phenomenon. This does not deny the existence of women in history who have fought and struggled, especially during the struggle for independence prior to 1948. In 1975 when the United Nations declared the Decade for Women, the issues relating to women's oppression were raised and discussed also in Sri Lanka. Although no significant advances have been made in actually combatting specific oppressive conditions to which women are subjected, it at least helped to raise the issue, considered to be unimportant and secondary. An issue which was also considered to be dividing the working class movement.
The present United National Party Government introduced the Free Trade Zone in 1977 where local and foreign investors are invited to set up their industries, utilising the labour of Sri Lanka, producing goods for the foreign market. Women's organisations more intent on organising women workers were encouraged to further strengthen their mode of operation. The Free Trade Zone employs a labour force of 27,000 workers of which 85% are women.
Many organisations which organise and contact women workers in and around the Free Trade Zone sprang up. It has been estimated that in the Greater Colombo Economic Commission Area alone (within which the Free Trade Zx)ne is also set up) around 50,000 women workers are living either in boarding houses or in their homes, or with relatives. The forms of organisation that one can observe in the country as a whole cannot continue to be the blue print in organising the women employed in factories in the GCEC. The reason is that the employers (mostly foreigners) do not encourage trade unions or any sort of organisation. They even take disciplinary steps against women workers who identify themselves with any organisation.
As a result various strategies are utilised to reach these workers. For instance there are women's centres, workers' centres, religious centres that have been set up to meet the needs of these women workers. The centres provide reading facilities and facilitates leisure time activities, group dynamics, discussions among the women workers. These organisations are run by women workers themselves while at other times, activists in the women movement or religious persons (mainly catholic nuns) are the initiators. The aims of these organisations are not the same. For instance some organisations would have as its emphasis a purely social service orientation while others may be more political. For the latter, independent mobilisation of women around their own issues may be only a transitional demand.
There further exists women section in trade unions. These women sections are not independent but are subjected to decisions taken at the level of the executive body of the 'Mother' unions which are almost always male-dominated. Political parties too have their own women's wing, but do not seek to organise women workers alone but women in general. The women who belong to this type of organisations are those who are either members of the Party in question or sympathisers.
Relationship with Trade Unions
Except for the interest shown by trade unions to organise women into their own trade unions, there exists little or no relationship at all between women workers organisations and trade unions.
In the Greater Colombo Economic Commission Area, outside of the Free Trade Zone, trade unions are allowed to exist. These trade unions have therefore women workers in their membership. Although no demands specific to women have yet been taken up by these trade unions, one is able to observe that in such cases, they do have close relations with women workers organisations that function in this particular area. Women workers active in the trade unions have taken initiatives in setting up organisations specific to women workers only. Although the trade unions have the possibility of exercising subtle forms of control over the women workers organisation, the very existence of such organisations need to be appreciated and encouraged.
Women sections of the trade unions or political parties are usually more directly controlled by the trade union or political party in question.
However, the women workers organisations within the Free Trade Zone have little or no contact with the Trade Unions. The prohibition (not written, but understood) of trade union organisation in the FTZ by the managing authority have led to a situation where the traditional trade unions have made no effort to organise women workers employed in the FTZ, because they cannot in any event form a branch of their trade unions inside the Zone. And if they dare to do so, they may have to function without any legal recognition. Our experience is that trade unions in Sri Lanka have not taken a decisive step to actually challenge and combat this situation, neither have they tried different strategies in order to overcome the traditional forms they have so far adopted.
Therefore, organisation working with women within the Zone usually have little or no relation with the trade unions. It is interesting to note that the initiatives in this direction have been mainly taken up by religious activists.
Alternative Organising: An Interview
I talked with a Catholic nun who is presently working with women workers employed in the Free Trade Zone in Sri Lanka.
"I have been working with women employed in the Free Trade Zone for over a year and have been able to come to terms with their situation in a very personal way. soon as I came here, I carried out a survey to find out for myself the problems these women face and also to identify their needs. The women themselves helped me a deal to carry out this survey - taking the questionnaire from house to house - putting me in touch with women from different factories.
"This survey assisted me not only to get an insight into the situation but put me touch with around 1000 women. Initially we just met - talked, got to know each other sometimes assisting them in personal questions as well. Gradually we became more organised, meeting once every week. We decided to set up a library and reading A place where the women could come and meet other women - a place always open to them. After a while I realised that we were going around in circles - the same women came week after week. There did not seem to be a significant improvement.
"I like to tell you of some of the difficulties we face in organising these women. The first is that these women are very young, aged between 18 and 25, and are doing first job. They lack experience and have no idea at all of the methods utilised by the managements to extract their labour. They tend to take things for granted. The intense discipline which they are subject to at homes is used by the managements to extract maximum profit from them. As the experience of being controlled is not new to them, these women accept this without raising any questions.
"The second difficulty is that the fear that they have even to talk of organising. The constant threat which looms over them is that they will lose their jobs instantly if organise themselves. It is therefore extremely difficult even to approach these women. Although we promise them that we do not intend to organise a trade union, they still fear and this is a justifiable fear. There is a background to this. (We really need to understand these women, that is why I speak like this.) These women are normally recruited through Members of Parliament - those representing the particular area they come from. It is through their parents or some member of their family who work as member of the United National Party that they are able to obtain this job. So the control is already placed on them when they come to the city. They come from the rural areas, several hundred miles from the village and live here in boarding houses. The other question is that a job in the city is a dream realised and these women come with all types of expectations. They are forced to endure the oppressive tactics used by managements, in order that they can earn some money to meet at least some of expectations.
"The third difficulty we face is that these women do not visualise themselves as let alone as women. Most of them come from lower middle class families in the areas but with middle class values. They have a high degree of education when with women workers in the rest of the country. I have come across women who even done a degree, or specialised in a particular skill. The women have at least years of education.
"The fourth identifiable difficulty, which is linked to the third, is that they see themselves as temporary workers. The expectation of the society is that they be married, and have a home. And children plays a very significant part in the lives these women. In a sense I often feel that they are all the time planning their lives this manner and have the ultimate goal of marriage in view. She does not consider possibility of continuing her job after marriage. If you talk to any of the women ask her how long she would continue with her present job, she would reply maybe another year or two, not more than that.
"Therefore the consideration of herself being a temporary worker only brings up numerous problems such as the idea that she should not do anything that might jeopardise her job and thinks of herself alone - as an entity within itself.
"These are some of the difficulties we face in dealing directly with the workers. there are other difficulties too. One of them is the repression that we often have confront. Despite the fact that we are not a trade union nor are we trying to form kind of organisation inside the Zone, we have to constantly face harrassment from the police, questioning, false rumours and intimidation. All kinds of actions are taken to instil fear in the women, threatening that they may lose their jobs if they continue to work with us. They also try to create a hostile ring around the area we work to the extent of making the villagers suspicious of us. We work openly. Our publications are openly distributed. But still they fear that we have the potential of identifying needs of the women workers and take concrete steps to change their situation.
"The other difficulty we face is in trying to enter the boarding houses. We find than normal situations permit. But the landlords discourage the women, and often put obstacles in our way when we try to get through. We have to try to meet outside, but it is not easy. It is always much more personal and the women are at ease when we talk to them in their own surroundings.
"We have to realise tint within this situation the traditional forms of organising not be prove successful. For instance we cannot work like a trade union, especially the way trade unions function in this country, along party tines. We cannot build memberships around organisations. We need to be build open-ended organisations do not make any woman worker feel she has to be committed on a life time basis. must let the women make the decisions which they think they can handle and they feel they can win over other women as well. This is very important because traditional way of operation of the trade unions, where decisions are taken at the top and are implemented by the women workers has no future in these areas, we have develop new forms of organisation, new ways of working, of reaching women.
"For instance, one of the main questions that the women workers in the Free Trade Zone face is security. . . sexual harassment, usually when they leave factories and their way to their boarding houses. We discussed this problem. The decision was to the entire village involved in the process of eliminating this menace. The women workers went from house to house to get their support to carry out a campaign to change situation. Finally a meeting was summoned of all village councils, youth groups, church groups and religious organisations to discuss this matter. The initiative was taken the women themselves and the discussion led by them. As a result of this, a concensus was reached whereby the villagers pledged to see that such harassments do not place in the future. Churches, temples, public platforms were used to carry this message across and to a very large extent, this menace has been lessened. We could never reached this situation by ourselves. The women workers residing in this area are the rural areas, not from the village. . . we have to be very conscious of this when agitate for any demand affecting them.
"The future prospects are not bleak. We realise there are women who are willing to take risks - even at the expense of their jobs. And this gives us a lot of courage to go The number of women participating in different ways increases daily and this is very positive. For instance, when there were queries about a publication we release bimonthly, the women were questioned in their factories by the managements and by the authority of the Greater Colombo Economic Commission - but they were not to be put off Even with the threat of being given a letter of dismissal they were willing to continue the publication. You must understand that this is not the normal situation prevailing - or that all the women working in the Free Trade Zone would take these risks, but there are a few, and the number is increasing. In our work we realise that it is imperative that we have the support of the village. I think this is important for any organisation that functions for women workers in this country.
"The other point I want to make is that we have never worked as a 'women workers organisation'. It would be an unnecessary risk to do so. Our work is directed at the women workers, organised and controlled by them, but we do not want to wave a saying that we are a women workers organisation. We call ourselves by another name. We also work in close collaboration with other organisations which work towards assisting these women workers. We must be careful not to duplicate the work or to form organisations to serve the same purpose. We must not compete with each other because the women will get confused and become put off. We have to work in a completely different manner to achieve the maximum results. Our organisations should not be rigid and have positions which could lead to varying kinds of corruption. We should be effective with minimum forms of rigid structures.
"We have to work slowly but with deliberateness. We should not take any steps the women workers being completely aware of and being part of the decision. Our demands must and always should be consistent with the demands of the majority the women workers. But they should also be transitional demands which would to more long term demands. For instance the demand to the Authority of the Greater Colombo Economic Commission to make the women workers aware of the implications of the night shift for women is a common demand which should also give way to the government to implement the promises of security, transportation, choice, when/if the women agree to work on the night shift. This also raises questions relating to harrassments, rapes and also basic demand for security.
"It is only if we continue to work in a non-sectarian manner, to raise the issue of workers in a deliberate and systematic manner and to work with them in their interest, that we can change their situation and alter their position. This is my experience th way we work for the best results."
In conclusion, the future organisation of women workers can be seen as expressed above. Traditional forms of organisation have to give way to new methods. With the gradual realisation of their own position in society as women, the future seems positive and hopeful. The process is slow but decisive. This is a phenomenon that needs to gain recognition in every part of the country where women workers are concentrated. Recent years have displayed this recognition.