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Anna Stewart
Memorial Program |
Past Participants
A
BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE
Anna Stewart worked passionately
and tirelessly to involve women directly in deciding on principles
and priorities to put before unions and government in order to
achieve real quality of status and opportunity for women.
Her efforts achieved more in less than a decade working in the union
movements than most of us will in a lifetime. Anna's work
encapsulated her remarkable vision of women's lives - as they were -
as she hoped they would be. Her commitment was expressed through all
possible channels but particularly through the political and
industrial wings of the labour movement.
Anna entered the industrial arena at a time when women workers made
up a third of the paid workforce but the few industries in which
they were employed, were almost invariably at the unskilled and
semi-skilled level. Women were poorly paid, lacked job security and
job satisfaction and rarely had access to promotional opportunities.
Anna developed a radical re- evaluation of the rights of female
labour within the economy which led to a fundamental reappraisal of
these issues throughout the labour movement.
In 1974, the Federated Furnishing Trades Society of Australasia was
looking for an "Out of work journalist" to investigate and write a
report on the effects of tariff charges on furniture imports. Anna,
pregnant at the time, was employed by the union.,
The report completed, Anna secured a full-time position as research
officer with that union. She immediately set about preparing a work
value case for argument before the Conciliation and Arbitration
Commission. That too, was successful.
In the midst of preparing for this case, she spared no time in
commencing negotiations with employers for the inclusion of
maternity leave conditions into awards. Anna herself was very
obviously pregnant with her child at the time.
For many years, the issues of equal pay, maternity leave and
childcare had been ignored.
Anna's persuasiveness and commitment secured the employers' consent
to maternity leave provisions becoming award conditions thereby
averting the necessity for full-scale argument and justification by
the union before the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration
Commission. When it finally went before the Commission for the
official stamp of approval, all the parties were in total agreement.
An incredible achievement - the first blue-collar union to achieve
maternity leave provisions for its female members.
Anna continued to articulate issues rationally and forcefully,
winning respect and admiration from those for whom she worked as
well as her opposition.
When her youngest child was born he accompanied Anna on the job, out
into the field gathering evidence and into the Commission to finally
put submissions. She accommodated the needs of her young son either
by breast-feeding in the Commission or by seeking an adjournment of
proceedings.
Anna set a precedent for many women who gained strength and
confidence from her example of combining motherhood with a career.
The Arbitration Commission, the union and employers all were
sensitised directly to the needs of working mothers, particularly in
relation to childcare.
Both personally and industrially Anna made demands upon the social
system and forced the work environment to accommodate the rights and
needs of working women and their children. Her success in having
those demands met offered hope and inspiration to all women who in
the quest for personal survival, usually attempt to adjust
themselves to the requirements of a social system which
simultaneously demands cheap, female labour whilst conferring on
women, sole responsibility for childcare.
In 1975 Anna took up the position of Federal Research Officer with
the Vehicle Builders Employees' Federation of Australia (VBEF). In
this position she continued her role as an advocate and her efforts
to improve "the lot" faced by women workers.
A visit to the United States of America in that year strengthened
Anna's resolve to achieve change for women in Australia. She
returned stimulated and enthusiastic about the strength and impact
of the women's movement in the United States.
At the VBEF, Anna fought with an unmatched tenacity for the
provision of childcare facilities in car plants, securing a
consensus decision from union delegates to this effect. Anna headed
a campaign by the union to drag sexual harassment into the light of
day, condemning it as another facet of women's exploitation and
convincing employers that the issue was an industrial one and needed
to be dealt with, immediately, through industrial channels.
As a result of her initiative all sexist language then existing in
the awards was removed. Whilst at the VBEF she also worked and
assisted on the ACTU Maternity Leave case. The case was presented to
the public, especially to women workers, so successfully that the
following twelve months witnessed a remarkable increase in the
female membership of the unions. Anna headed the Media Liaison
Committee and ensured that her former press colleagues gave good
coverage of what was being achieved.
At its Congress in 1977, the ACTU adopted the Working Women's
Charter and set up the first Women's Committee of the ACTU. Anna was
one of the founding members of that Committee - one of the four
women chosen to be its nucleus, and remained an active force in that
Committee working for the implementation of the Charter. Only a
couple of weeks before her death she successfully argued the future
program of the ACTU Women's Committee before the AM Executive.
In 1980, after five years with the VBEF, Anna became a Senior
Federal Industrial Officer with the Municipal Officers' Association
(MOA) and in 1981 was thrown head first into a dispute with the
Electricity Trust of South Australia over wages. Her resolve
obtained a pre-Christmas salary increase by out-manoeuvring an
employer strategy which would have been to the detriment of MOA
members.
At the MOA Anna initiated the establishment of Women's Committees in
most State Branches. She developed a strong sexual harassment policy
and laid the ground work for the development in industrial
agreements and award conditions relating to sexual harassment. She
also developed an affirmative action policy which the MOA adopted
after her death, ensuring increased active participation by women in
the union. This policy, calling for 25% of M elected representatives
to be women, was passed overwhelmingly at the 1983 MOA Federal
Council.
Women trade union officials themselves are susceptible to sexual
harassment from employer representatives who stand to gain a
tactical advantage if they can humiliate and degrade their
industrial opponents. Anna was adept at dealing with such
situations. Soon after her arrival at the MOA, in the course of
negotiations with a group of South Australian employers she was
taken to lunch at a "topless" restaurant. Anna coolly ignored their
sexist pranks and retaliated by out-manoeuvring them in negotiations
which resulted in large salary increases for MOA members.
Anna secured remarkable gains, particularly for working women,
directly for the members for whom she worked and indirectly for all
women by setting precedents in a number of areas and by her own
personal example. The influence of Anna's life and work remains
immeasurable. She brought hope and support to women throughout the
trade union movement, providing them with the strength and
confidence to continue the fight.
