Women's vital role promoted in Egyptian seafarer workshop

A workshop for seafarer unionists led by ITF Arab women organiser and Egypt project officer Samar Youssef has been held in Alexandria. Twenty-two participants – five of them women – learned and practised new skills that will help them to become effective collective bargaining negotiators.
Topics covered included building a negotiating team; information and date collection; building internal and external networks; as well as a role playing exercise in which participants acted as trade unionists, shipowners, and members of the ministry of employment.

Samar Youssef reported: “This was a successful and important workshop. At the end of the three days what was particularly heartening was the great feedback we received, with 97 per cent of participants describing the event as ‘excellent’.”
She continued: “It also gave us an opportunity to ensure that the role of women and women’s leadership was and is upheld in what has previously been a very male-dominated sector.”