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Anna Stewart Memorial Project

Jennifer O'Donnell-Pirisi , VTHC Women's Officer:
email: mailto:jo'donnell-pirisi@vthc.org.au or  or  ph: 03 9659 3511.

Anna Stewart Memorial Project Dates for 2010

May intake - Monday 3 May - Friday 14 May 2010

October intake - Monday 11 October - Friday 22 October 2010

ph: 03 9659 3511.

Course statement: Honouring Anna's contribution to women and unions

What is the ASMP Project?

The aim of the Anna Stewart Memorial Project is to increase women's involvement in the union movement through training. The project has been in existence since 1984 and so far over 400 women unionists have participated in the Victorian arm of the project.
During the two week project women trade union members from diverse workplaces and occupations are placed with their own, and sometimes with another union. They experience the full range of union work, including mass meetings, enterprise bargaining negotiations and hearings in the Industrial relations Commission. All participants meet for three full days and one half day during the project to discuss women, work and union issues. They are generally sponsered by unions and there is no charge for attending the course.

Who was Anna Stewart?
Anna Stewart, a former journalist and active Victorian union official from 1974 to 1983, died tragically in 1983, aged 35. Her involvement with the union movement began at a time when women workers comprised one-third of the paid workforce, but the few industries in which women were employed, offered jobs that were poorly paid, lacked job security and skills recognition.
A prime consideration motivating Anna was the need to develop strategies to address the issues confronting working women and to highlight the important contribution that women make to the trade union movement.
With the Federated Furnishing Trades Society of Australia, Anna Stewart successfully spear-headed the first blue collar union campaign for maternity leave award provisions. At the time Anna was in the late stages of pregnancy with her third child.
After moving to the Victorian Vehicle Builders Federation in 1975, Anna fought for childcare facilities in car plants, researched and argued work value cases, initiated campaigns against sexual harassment causing employers to recognise sexual harassment as an industrial issue, and assisted with the ACTU Maternity Leave Test Case.
Anna was a foundation member of the ACTU Women's Committee, established in 1977, and worked tirelessly on programs to be incorporated into the Working Women's Charter. Anna emphasised the key demand made by the ACTU Working Women's Charter for increased involvement of women within the structures of the union movement.
As Senior Federal Industrial Officer with the Municipal Officers Association, Anna initiated women's committees in most state branches of the union and developed strong policies in relation to women workers. After her death, the MOA adopted the Affirmative Action Policy that Anna developed.
The influence of Anna's work is difficult to measure. Many women gained strength and confidence from her example of combining motherhood and a career. During Commission hearings Anna Stewart would either breast feed her young son or seek adjournments to do so, exposing the Commission, employers and the union to the needs of women workers. In addition, Anna secured many conditions for the members she represented and indirectly for all working women, by setting these precedents.
Women unionists are fortunate to have Anna's example to assist and support them in the struggles that continue today.

Honouring Anna's contribution to women and unions
After Anna's death, a number of her trade union friends and colleagues met to determine the most appropriate means by which her work and life could be remembered. The founders of the Memorial felt that a project based around the Working Women's Charter demand for increased involvement in trade unions was immediately relevant to Anna's memory and to the needs of the female workforce. This was felt to be particularly appropriate in light of statistics that showed that, despite the large numbers of women joining trade unions, women were still under-represented in decision-making structures.
The Anna Stewart Memorial Project was thus born and the inaugural program was co-ordinated by the Municipal Officers Association in Victoria in April 1984.
The Project was conceived as an annual two week "on the job" training program for women unionists. It was designed to give participants unique levels of access to union organizations, and develop their awareness of the ways in which unions can work to redress the discrimination and exploitation of women workers in Australia. Unions also benefit by increased sensitivity to the needs of, and issues affecting women workers.

October 2009 ASMP Participants
















May 2009 ASMP Participants

Striven, strove over burning dates
gritty, graven marchers, mates
with ever-after placards
punctuating airs and minds.
 
Reminisce, the bluestone begs,
encounter, says the list of men,
consider, says unsighted marshland,
what they did for you back when.
 
The women with their nimble fingers
- our hats are off to them -
displaying public issue of gender
that to this day small minds offend.
 
A force of kind constituency
as stalwart as a winter bear
- our stewards and our industrial
representatives, our working politic -
 
Stand up, all who benefit of
Australia's gutsy partisanship
for workers everywhere
to have it fair
 
Stand up!
 
 













October 2008 ASMP Participants outside Trades Hall Building





Project Objectives

• To provide a fitting memorial to a leading trade unionist.
• To facilitate the greater involvement of women in the trade union movement and to encourage women to stand for office or to seek jobs within trade unions.
• To encourage the integration of women into union structures by increasing the opportunity for involvement in those structures, thereby seeking to overcome the sense of alienation often experienced by female members.
• To promote greater awareness within unions of the particular needs of female members and the important contribution women can make to the development and growth of unions.
• To promote women's understanding of the day to day operations of individual unions and to further their knowledge of collective activities of groups of unions and State and National Peak Councils.
• To facilitate a greater understanding of the industrial issues confronting women in both blue and white collar occupations with a view to bridging the gaps which often exists between workers in these areas.
  

Course Statement

1. Course Design & Direction
This course has been designed by TUTA staff.

2. Knowledge & Skills to be Developed

a. Day to day operations of a union and its officials and employees
b. Industrial Relations issues in the workplace, with a particular focus on enterprise bargaining.
c. Development and Negotiation of Enterprise Agreement
d. Role and procedures of the Industrial Relations Commission, especially in relation to enterprise bargaining
e. Issues arising from women's participation in unions
f. History of the trade union movement and its current structure
g. Encouragement of greater participation by women in the union movement
h. Committee skills and meeting procedures

3. How Knowledge & Skills are to be Imparted

a. Formal presentations
b. Videos and other audio visual aids
c. Practical exercises
d. Group discussions
e. Mock Commission Hearing: Enterprise Bargaining
f. Visits to workplaces accompanied by union officials
g. Observation of unions at work

4. Course Outcomes
At the end of this program, participants will be able to:

a. Describe how a trade union performs its functions both in the workplace and in the Industrial Relations Commission.
b. Describe how an enterprise agreement is achieved
c. Participate more fully in the work of their own union
d. Encourage other women to do the same
e. Describe the roles, functions and operations of key union organizations
f. Describe some of the key issues confronting women in the workforce

For further information about the Anna Steward Memorial Project contact
Jennifer O'Donnell-Pirisi, VTHC Women's Officer on 9659 3511.

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