TORONTO – The Steelworkers Humanity Fund is establishing new partnerships with two organizations in Bolivia and Peru to amplify women workers’ voices in the defence of their rights in the mining, municipal and retail sectors, and to raise awareness on gender-based violence issues.
In Peru, THANI will disseminate information about the national labour law and its specific health and safety components for women workers. At the same time, it will research and document women’s general occupational health and safety conditions and evaluate ways to increase their representation in labour mechanisms. THANI will also provide skill-development training to approximately 1,000 women in order to empower them to occupy leadership roles in those structures.
In Bolivia, the Women’s Co-ordination Alliance, in partnership with the National Network of Women Miners (RNMM, in Spanish) will work to address high levels of poverty, discrimination, harassment and violence faced by artisanal women miners in their workplace and at home. RNMM’s extensive network will be mobilized in mining communities to provide leadership training workshops for 550 women, as well as carry out a campaign on the prevention of violence against women that will involve 2,000 men in the same mining communities.
“Women around the world face important challenges when it comes to asserting their rights in the workplace,” said Ken Neumann, President of the Steelworkers Humanity Fund. “The Steelworkers Humanity Fund will build on its long and rich history of solidarity in Latin America, establishing two strategic partnerships that will support Peruvian and Bolivian women to occupy the space they are entitled to as workers and to continue their ongoing fight to end gender-based violence.”
Founded in 1985, the Steelworkers Humanity Fund is a registered charitable organization that focuses primarily on development projects and emergency aid in developing countries, but also supports Canadian communities. USW members contribute to the fund through clauses negotiated into collective agreements. In some cases, employers make matching contributions to the fund.
Ken Neumann, President, Steelworkers Humanity Fund, 416-544-5951
Doug Olthuis, Executive Director, Steelworkers Humanity Fund, 416-859-9953, dolthuis@usw.ca
Shannon Devine, USW Communications, 416-894-7118 (cell), sdevine@usw.ca
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