History

"Lesbians and gay men are discriminated against in most countries all around the world.
Maybe there is not much surprise in this. We are the latest of the liberation movements and our struggle will inevitably take some time to succeed.
However I always found being discriminated against within a trade union more shocking. After all the very existence of a trade union is to stop exploitation and defend the rights of the weak.
Hence I always assumed that trade unions are the natural allies of lesbians and gay men.
Alas this is not the situation and we need to work hard to reverse this situation.

Trade unions are very powerful organisations in many countries. Indeed there are countries in the world in which the trade unions are the only voice of the working people.
In most developed countries trade unions achieved much for their members.
We want to say from this conference that it is time lesbian and gay workers get the benefits of being a trade unionist.


The aims of this conference are:

• to build awareness to the problems and unequal treatment people can face in their work places because of their sexual orientation;
• to draw attention to the opportunities which are available to trade unionist lesbians and gay men within their trade unions in combatting discrimination and receiving equal treatment;
• to network amongst the lesbian and gay trade union groups, and to extend this networking to lesbian/gay/bisexual and transgender movement;
• to learn from each other and to strengthen ourselves with new ideas;
• to call to the international trade union movement to take up lesbian and gay issues as a trade union issue and as a human rights issues.

This conference has been a dream for many of us for a long time. Its conception did take place in ILGA Trade Union Workshops over the last five years.

It is interesting that this conference's seeds were sown in ILGA meetings, because on a global scale trade unions are not the most lesbian and gay friendly places, and ILGA is not the hot bed of trade union activism.
Indeed many people wouldn't have believed that this odd couple could have produced such an excellent baby.
It must be true: the family unit is no longer just a heterosexual couple with 2.4 kids!

We did know that there were lesbian and gay networks in different trade unions.
The organization, size and effectiveness of these groups varied but they were increasingly winning the battle for the argument which says that "Lesbian and Gay Issues are Trade Union Issues".
Within ILGA a "Trade Union Information Pool" was set up for the first time.
Even though this was not as effective as it could be; it recognised that the international trade union movement has a contribution to make to the lesbian and gay struggle.

The organizers do recognize that if we are to succeed in changing things for lesbians and gay men we need allies.
In some public and private work places there have been significant changes towards the betterment of the working conditions and lives of lesbians and gay men.
This is why we wanted this conference to be an open one to those people who are interested in lesbian and gay issues, instead of just a lesbian and gay conference.

This is the first ever international conference of lesbian and gay trade unionists.
The organizing committee has no blue print as to the future or direction of this conference.
However we hope this is not a flash in the pan and there are future conferences to follow up and develop the work we start here.
We also hope that from this conference there will be organizational arrangements to carry out the decisions we reach here, and help to organize future conferences.
Hence it is our intention to produce a closing document and a conference report.
To facilitate this we ask to the facilitators of the workshops to appoint a note taker to minute the workshops so that issues discussed in your workshops can find their way to the above documents.
In the conference office there are a few computers which may be used for typing, and we also have a few volunteers who are willing to help you with administrative tasks.

The small group of the organizing committee consists of representatives from different unions from different countries and some dedicated individuals, however the inevitable hard work of pulling the conference together was left to the unions, confederations, and the individual members from the Netherlands.
I am grateful for the support of all these trade unions and the individuals who worked so hard to bring together this conference.

On behalf of the organizing committee, I wish you a successful conference."