Under the banner of “Stop Gender-Based Violence in the Workplace: Causes and Consequences” BWI affiliates in European Regional Women’s Committee Group 6 (Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia) met at Hotel Granit-Ohrid from 16-17 March to discuss the implementation of BWI’s campaign to stop Gender-Based Violence as part of BWI’s global convergence number 4.
The objective of the conference was to bring together women in the Group 6 to discuss and strategize how to move the campaign within the unions, countries, and in sub-region. The majority of the 90 participants were SGIP women members including a significant number from GD Granit AD Skopje. In addition, representatives from Federation of Trade Unions of Macedonia, Construction and Building Materials Industry Workers Trade Union of Serbia, Independent Trade Union of Forestry and Wood Processing and Paper of Republika Srpska (BiH), Forestry and Woodworking Workers’ Union of Serbia, and the Independent Roads Workers’ Trade Union of Croatia also participated in the conference.
According to Ivana Dimitrova, Titular Member for Group 6 of the BWI European Regional Women’s Committee and Vice-Chair of the Committee stated, “In Adana, the European Regional Women’s Committee passed a four-year work plan and a key component was the campaign to stop gender-based violence. This conference is for us to launch the campaign at the sub-regional level. The strong interest and large participation clearly show that this is an important issue that trade unions must address and come up with constructive solutions to end gender-based violence.”
At the end of the two-day conference it was evident that the participants were more aware of the campaign and what they need to do in their unions and communities. At the closing the women gathered in a group photo shouting: Power to the Women! STOP Workplace Discrimination! STOP GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE!