Sexual harassment-nou a trade union issue

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One union, NALGO, has started to declare sexual harassment "a trade union issue'. Jo Thwaites reports.

1 15 1 24 4 5 3 1 22 23 31 11 12 20 21 29: 30 18 26 27 19 28 .se. da 25 Liverpool: Turkey Solidarit Campaign public meeting Tuesday November 3, 7.30 it the Swan Hotel, London Rd. Speaker: Dogan Tarkan Oxfordshire County Associalion of Trades Councils bonference: Ireland - where loes the labour movement Hand?

Saturday December 12, 10-5 it West Oxford Community Centre, Binsey Lane, Oxford. Delegate's credentais £3, observers £1.50 (Unwaged £ 1) from Marie Campbell, 167 Walton St, Oxford. ‚We ourselves speak': the latest film about the struggle in Ireland. Showing, plus speaker and discussion, on Thursday October 29, from 7.45 at Leeds Trades Club, Savile Mt., Leeds 7. (Leeds Troops Out Mov't).

Rochdale Labour Party ¡Dayschool: Democracy trade unions.

Speakers: Winnie Murphy (NUTGW), Alan Thornett ¡From 10,30am, Sunday 1 (November, at Wardlewort Community Centre, Soutl iSt, Rochdale. SEXUAL harassment is a trade union issue.

Every woman who works with men at some point comes up against sexual harassment - anything from a sexist joke (so-called) to physical assault.

Usually the woman either tries to laugh it off, stays quest, t compisin. The shop doesn aune steward is very seldom asked to do anything.

NALGO (the Town Hall workers' union) and Thames Television have recently done a survey. 504 NALGO members were circulated in Liverpool City Treasurers' department, and 160 returned questionnaires.

(Presumably it was done before the present typists' strike started. And unfortunately it can't tell us anything about how the self-confidence and awareness gained by women through the strike will have affected sexual harassment).

The women took the survey more seriously than the men, and 52% said that ity they had experienced unwanted sexual attention which caused them discomfort in the workplace. 67% of them said they had felt embarrassed angry, though only 17% reported actual sexual propositions.

Most of the sexual harassment complained about was staring or leering.

Angry

Despite the anger and embarassment, only nine women made any complaint, seven to a supervisor and two to a union shop steward.

Why? Many women feel they won't be taken seriously. It's just part of 'fun' of office life. You could be ridiculed as a prude, a hysteric, or a killjoy, or condemned for inviting the advances you complain about. It's just part of the fun' of office life.

Sometimes the offender is the boss, and a complaint could mean losing your job.

Then there's the public- it doesn't take much The ₺ Wi SM. by thought to work out the lurid, titillating headlines that would appear in the Sun or the Mail.

All these reasons for the lack of official complaints of sexual harassment are pointed out in a new pamphlet produced by NALGO, which insists that sexual harassment at work is a trade union issue, not a personal problem.

It gives guidelines for union branches to take up the issue.

A woman shop steward should be allocated to help with cases of sexual harassment, since male shop stewards are not necessarily aware or sympathetic to the problems. Meetings and questionnaires can be used to get the subject aired in the workplace.

Action

pamphlet ognises men NAI memy be sexu harassmale NALI members (the supervisors and chief officers are in NALGO, too), but doesn't offer much guidance - except to say that there needs to be "systematic and thorough preparation, and the evidence must be accurate and reliable"

Union disciplinary action against members guilty of harassment is not mentioned - though in some cases this may be the only action appropriate.

NALGO has done the whole labour movement a service by taking sexual harassment at work seriously, and by being the first union to do so - though the fact is that the guidelines still leave everything up to the branchosc with little help from the national leadership.

You can get the pamphlet from NALGO, I Mabledon Place, London WCI (free - send s.a.e.). NALGO also suggests hiring the film 'It's not your imagination' which you can get from Cinema of Women, 27 Clerkenwell Close, London EC1 (cost £15). by Ann Eva

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