Conferences
TUC Annual Congress 2008
NGH attended the TUC Annual Congress for the third year running in September. We had an extremely successful conference raising awareness about homeworking issues and launching our new book ‘The Work Goes On… 100 Years of Homework.’
NGH shared a campaign stand with Homeworkers WorldWide throughout the conference, and together we promoted the campaign for ratification of the ILO Convention on Homework and talked to delegates about the importance of supporting homeworker organisations.
To mark the launch of our new book, which reflects on progress since a Select Committee on Homework was held in 1908, NGH staff dressed in Edwardian costume and this proved very effective in drawing people to our stall and catching their interest.
‘The Work Goes On… 100 Years of Homework’ was officially launched at a fringe event on Monday 8th September. At the fringe speakers including Diana Holland of Unite, Paul Nowak of TUC, Ruth Bergan of Homeworkers WorldWide and representatives from NGH debated approaches to homeworker organising and what more trade unions should do to support homeworkers.
TUC Women's Conference - March 2008
Women trade unionists gathered in Eastbourne for the annual Women’s TUC Conference from 12th - 14th March.
NGH was at the conference, campaigning for UK ratification of the ILO Convention on Homework. The Convention, if ratified, would improve the rights of UK homeworkers, ensuring equal treatment with other workers. At the NGH campaign stall delegates were urged to send a letter to their MP supporting ratification of the Convention, and post them off in our special campaign postbox. The delegates were strongly supportive of our campaign and took a real interest in the issues facing UK homeworkers.
Homeworkers around the world were also high on the agenda thanks to the Homeworkers WorldWide ‘Who foots the bill?’ campaign. This campaign focuses on the situation of homeworkers in the leather footwear industry. It is a truly global issue with homeworkers sewing shoes in supply chains from Chile to Bulgaria, India to Portugal. Homeworkers WorldWide are campaigning for major shoe companies like Clarks and Stylo to take more responsibility for their supply chains, checking whether homeworkers are working on their shoes, and ensuring they get decent pay and conditions. Rozalina Ivanova, a homeworker organiser from Bulgaria was in Eastbourne to support the ‘Who foots the bill?’ campaign, and addressed a conference rally and fringe meeting about the problems homeworkers face and the work they are doing to improve their conditions.
European Homeworking Group - Istanbul 2007
In November 2007 NGH took part in a European meeting of homeworker organisations in Istanbul. Representatives from Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Madeira and the UK met to discuss the issues that effect homeworkers across Europe.
Discussions included campaigning for the rights of homeworkers in the footwear industry, building sustainable democratic organisations, lobbying for employment rights and social protection across Europe, and how to work with allies in trade unions and other labour rights organisations.
TUC Annual Congress 2007
Cat and Nesta from NGH attended the TUC’s Annual Congress in Brighton from 10-13th September to campaign for homeworkers rights. We shared a stand with Homeworkers WorldWide and Labour Behind the Label (who support garment workers in global supply chains). We spent the week asking people to support our campaign for employment status for homeworkers, and attending meetings to hear what trade unionists are doing persuade the government to strengthen workers’ rights.
Cat said,
‘We got a lot of support from conference delegates who were keen to write to their MPs about our campaign. It is fantastic that vulnerable workers are so high on the agenda and we need to make the most of this to ensure homeworkers get the rights and protections they deserve.’
World Development Movement conference - June 2007
NGH held a campaign stall at the World Development Movement (WDM) annual conference on 30th June to spread the message about homeworkers’ rights. Many activists supported our campaign by sending a letter to their MP calling for employment rights to be extended to homeworkers.
WDM exists to tackle the causes of poverty and fight injustice, so it was a great place to talk to activists and campaigners about homeworking and build up support for our campaign.
For further information about WDM visit World Development Movement
TUC Women's Conference - March 2007
NGH attended the TUC Women’s Conference in Scarborough in March, to promote our employment rights campaign. We held a campaign stall and many delegates supported our campaign by signing letters to their MPs. It was also a chance for NGH to meet members of the many unions who have backed our campaign and supported our employment rights petition.
The conference gave strong support to women workers when they unanimously backed a motion on sweatshop labour. The motion stated ‘Sweatshop employers operate in the UK. They get away with it because of poor enforcement of the minimum wage and health and safety laws.’ The motion urged the TUC to ‘develop a strategy for recruiting and organising low-paid, super-exploited women workers’.
Al Garthwaite, a BECTU union respresentative, took part in the debate, and drew attention to the problems faced by home-based workers. She highlighted the work being done by organisations like the National Group on Homeworking and HomeWorkers Worldwide to support them. Al said that trade unions should look at the grassroots work being done with homeworkers all over the world.
No Sweat Activists Conference 2006
No Sweat – a network of anti-sweatshop campaigners - held its annual conference "Sweatshops, workers and international solidarity" on November 25th at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
As part of the conference, the National Group on Homeworking ran a workshop with HomeWorkers Worldwide entitled 'Homeworkers: The hidden workforce in global supply chains'.
We showed the HomeWorkers Worldwide film, ‘Homework in China’, and discussed concerns common to homeworkers around the world as well as the NGH Employment Rights for Homeworkers campaign.
National Council of Women of Great Britain Annual Conference 2006
NGH is affiliated to the National Council of Women and we attended their annual conference in Hereford in October. We proposed a Resolution as part of our employment rights for homeworkers campaign and we were extremely pleased that the delegates gave it their strong support.
The text of the Resolution, which will now be sent to the government and leaders of the main political parties is as follows:
The National Council of Women in Conference assembled, concerned that homeworkers lack the same employment rights and protections as those employed in factories or offices, calls upon the Government to revise the law on employment status, and to grant full employment rights to all UK homeworkers who are not working in business on their own account.
For further information about the National Council of Women visit: http://www.ncwgb.org
TUC Annual Congress 2006
The National Group on Homeworking attended the TUC Annual Congress in Brighton this year.
We were there to promote our employment rights campaign and to increase awareness of homeworking issues within the trade union movement.
NGH held a display stand providing information and campaign materials throughout the Congress and we recieved strong support from hundreds of delegates signing up to our campaign.
We also jointly hosted a fringe meeting with the TUC on the issue of employment rights and support for vulnerable workers. One of our homeworker members, Pamela James, spoke about her on-going battle to get the minimum wage, and the meeting was also addressed by Brendan Barber TUC, Alan Ritchie UCATT, Tony Woodley TGWU and Maria Hudson of the Policy Studies Institute. The meeting was chaired by Bas Morris, who is both Assistant General Secretary of Community and an NGH committee member.
We were extremely please to see the Congress gave its backing to UCATT's resolution on employment status which commited the TUC to working with other organisations to campaign for the extension of employment rights. For more information about the motions discussed and carried at the TUC Annual Congress visit the TUC's website at http://www.tuc.org.uk
HomeWorkers Worldwide International Conference 2006
The HWW international conference took place from 20th March -31st March this year. The conference - which met in Bulgaria and Macedonia - brought together homeworking organisations from Latin America, South Asia, Europe (including NGH), Eastern Europe, East Asia and Australia.
At the conference, representatives from homeworkers organisations and support organisations agreed to form an international federation to pursue common goals - the Federation of HomeWorkers Worldwide.
Are you organising a conference?
If you are organising a conference and would like a representative from NGH to attend, please get in touch. Call us on 0113 2454273 or email admin@ngh.org.uk