To achieve equality we need all of the ingredients: wages, benefits, provisions for work/life balance, job protection, and safe workplaces. There is a direct link, for example, between pay equity provisions and women’s pension benefits, because good pension benefits are dependent on better wages for women.
We must also make the connection between bargaining women’s equality within the union and the promotion of equality in the workplace for all women, not just unionized workers. We must advocate for strong public pensions, improved employment insurance maternity and parental leave, a national child care program, fair minimum wages, employment and pay equity, and effective laws to prevent violence and harassment in the workplace.
cope 491
