The Geelong Women Unionists Network, with the support of Geelong Trades Hall Council (GTHC), is holding a conference, Working Women Get Organised, on November 11 which is open to everyone.
Celeste Liddle, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organiser with the National Tertiary Education Union, who is widely know via her Black Feminist Ranter blog, will be speaking on a panel addressing family violence, rape culture and misogyny.
GTHC delegate and Australian Services Union (ASU) member Adele Welsh and Deakin University Student Association Student Representative and ASU student member Sarah Hathway will also speak on this panel.
Acting secretary of the ASU Michelle Jackson will address a workshop, Family Violence is Union Business.
Lisa Heap, women’s lead organiser and Jodi Peskett, Women’s Safety and Rights organiser, from the We Are Union Women campaign at Victorian Trades Hall will address the topic Gendered violence is an OH&S issue.
A third workshop, The War on Workers, will include Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) Women’s Officer Lisa Zanatta and Australia Workers Union organiser Tanya Harrington.
A panel looking at the gig economy, precarious work, underemployment and their effects on women will include Emma Kerin, an organiser with the National Union of Workers discussing the Fair Food Campaign to end exploitation in the fresh food supply chain.
Meave Noonan, from the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation and a researcher-in-residence at the Geelong Region Local Learning and Employment Network, will speak on youth unemployment in Geelong and the impact of the gig economy on young people.
Valerie Farfella from the Australian Unemployment Workers Union will discuss the impacts of underemployment and precarious work on women.
There will also be a series of practical workshops to prepare for an Equal Rights for Women rally that afternoon. This will be followed by the conference dinner at which the keynote speaker will be Karen Batt, Victorian branch secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union - State Public Service Federation (CPSU-SPSF).
[For updates on the conference visit the Geelong Trades Hall Facebook page.]
Like the article? Subscribe to Green Left now! You can also like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.