Women transport workers strengthen alliance strategy 

The 12 participants in the ITF women’s workshop in Bogota, Colombia from 22-24 August focused on the importance of alliances, making alliances functional and the principles behind strong alliances. They shared their experiences from their own countries of building alliances with other unions, passengers and community organisations.  

The participants are all either involved in the ITF women’s advocacy programme, which supports unions to address and prevent violence against women transport workers at work and at home, or in work linked to the ITF Our Public Transport priority programme.  

The workshop is part of the ITF’s Our Public Transport priority programme, in which building gender-based and other alliances is a key component. It piloted new training materials on building alliances that are being developed to support effective union responses by ensuring union campaigns are wide-reaching and inclusive so women and men have a strong voice.  

Workshop participant Claudia Pinilla Paez said: “By the end of the workshop, we all understood much more strategically how to build new alliances or strengthen existing ones, in our campaigning for decent and safe public transport for workers and users. It is also crucial in helping unions to end gender-based violence in the workplace.”   

Jodi Evans, ITF women transport workers equality officer, added that the participants said they found the content very relevant to their existing campaigns, and their feedback would help the ITF to develop its future workshops for women and men transport trade unionists in other parts of the world.  

Read more on the ITF programme to end violence against women transport workers on our blog at www.itfendvaw.org.

Follow the latest news from women transport workers on Facebook and Twitter using #ITFwomen.  

Follow the news about the Our Public Transport campaign using #OurPublicTransport on Facebook and Twitter.  

Through the ITF women’s advocacy programme advocates work with allies to address the root causes of gender based violence, and support women survivors to stay in employment. Read more in this factsheet.