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           Shipping Stevedoring Port Services Hydrocarbons Diving  Jul-Aug 2008        |
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Women@Work: Rainbow‘Workers Out’The 2nd World conference of Lesbian, Gay, Bi, and Transgender (LGBT) trade unionists, was recently held here in Sydney (31st October-2nd November 2002) as part of the cultural events around the ‘Gay Games VI’.
It was with great pleasure that I was able to represent both the MUA and the ITF at this conference and be given the opportunity to Chair one of the plenary session as well! During the breaks, many conference participants, covering a range of unions, shared with me their various picket line stories from the '98 Patrick's dispute from around the country. They spoke of their MUA experiences as a highlight of their union careers. It was a very real reminder of what it is that trade unionism and solidarity is all about regardless of who you are as an individual. The blue collar caucus that I convened identified that amongst the many LGBT issue's raised during the 3 day conference, we felt the main issues for our unions, was workplace harassment and discrimination of LGBT members. Several Resolutions were endorsed by the conference, including a message of solidarity to the ILWU. It was a trade union conference with a difference, and yet it still carried the common themes of global solidarity and pushing for a better world for all workers alike. Sue Virago |
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