How important is the link between sanitary pads and a healthy trade union movement? More significant than you might think.
A simple but effective campaign to provide women in Zimbabwe with sanitary products has not only helped to restore the right of Zimbabwean women to dignity during their periods, but also served to energise and coordinate a previously splintered trade union system, it emerged last month.
Since Zimbabwe’s economic decline began, the price of tampons or sanitary pads has soared to three-quarters of a woman’s monthly salary. Most women in the country have no chance of affording this any longer. In the absence of sanitary products during their periods, women have been forced to use materials like newspapers, bits of old cloth, leaves and even tree-bark. On many occasions, this led to infection.
Hearing of incidents like this prompted Thabitha Khumalo, the former Women’s Secretary for the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), to take up the issue of access to sanitary products for Zimbabwean women. Late in 2005 the problem was brought to the attention of UK campaigning organisation ACTSA (Action for Southern Africa), and the Dignity! Period. campaign was born.
Over the last four years, with the generous support of the UK unions, ACTSA has provided ZCTU with over six million sanitary pads to distribute to the women of Zimbabwe using their distribution channels. A report on the campaign by the ZCTU released last month suggests that the positive impact goes well beyond the product-distribution.
Interviews with union officials within Zimbabwe reveal that the opportunity to receive sanitary products through the unions has led to dramatic increases in female membership of trade unions. Unions dealing with the clothing industry, rural workers and agricultural industry all saw a hike by 50% in female membership since the campaign was launched. The union for the catering industry received a 90% boost in numbers of female members.
And it’s not just about numbers. Testimonies from individual unions spoke glowingly of the qualitative benefits for union morale. “Members now have confidence in the trade union,” said a spokesperson for the Engineering industry union. The Zimbabwe Urban Councils Workers Union reported: “The Dignity! Period campaign was instrumental in reviving our union.”
The position of the Zimbabwean trade unions has been a precarious one in recent years, with the unions being outspoken critics of the Mugabe regime. Attacks on union meetings, and particularly on women trade unionists, have increased in number and intensity over the past years. The use of the Public Order and Security Act to detain and interrogate legitimate trade union action and activists has been repeatedly criticised by the International Labour Organisation.
These kinds of issues were still evident in the union report on the Dignity! campaign last month. Unions for the agricultural industry reported having sanitary pads intercepted and confiscated. The tobacco and textile workers’ unions faced major employer resistance during the distribution of the products.
A less positive message from the union’s report also emerged: despite some optimism expressed about the Mugabe-Tsvangirai inclusive government, and attempts to kick start the Zimbabwean financial system via the dollarization of the economy earlier this year, products like sanitary pads are still utterly unaffordable for the average Zimbabwean. As female membership of the unions increases, so too does the need for higher quantities of sanitary pads.
ACTSA is appealing for help in their efforts to improve the quality of life for Zimbabwean women. Members of UK trade unions can continue to assist by making a donation to the Dignity! Period campaign, organising a fundraising event, selling Dignity! wrist bands and pin badges or simply helping to spread awareness of the issue.
“We will win this fight to save Zimbabwe,” says Thabitha Khumalo, now Vice President of the ZCTU. “But we need your support to empower us to fight with dignity.”