Nadia Pecoraro, SIU Canada Women’s Representative
International Women’s Day is a day to recognize, celebrate, and recommit ourselves to the fight for women’s rights around the world. The labour movement has always played a major role in advancing the rights of equity deserving groups and the SIU Canada is incredibly proud to highlight the strong Sisters of our great Union and celebrate them on this important day.
As the SIU Canada Women’s Representative, my job is to ensure my fellow SIU Canada Sisters have a voice at the table and are well represented in all aspects of our Union. I am pleased to share that our Union and the position of women within the SIU Canada has never been stronger. We continue to fight for issues specific to female seafarers and the recent release of our report on harassment has shed further light on the inequalities that women face on seagoing vessels and the greater risk that women face in the workplace when it comes to issues of harassment, sexual harassment and bullying. We will not stop working to see these issues addressed, and we will not stop fighting to make seafaring a career that is welcoming for women.
Our industry has a lot of room for improvement when it comes to equality of the genders, however, as we continue to march forward and advance the interests of women in the marine sector, we must also celebrate the achievements and advancements that we have made up to this day. Every year we see more strong women entering our industry, filling positions as deckhands, cooks, engineers, mates, captains and every other position on board. We must continue to promote our industry, promote equality and fairness, and stand tall in the face of inequalities.
Strong unions need strong women, and the SIU Canada continues to get stronger every day.
