SIPTU launched a new Gender Inclusive Language Toolkit developed by the Union’s National Equality Committee, during Pride week in June.
The Equality Committee (pictured above) comprises the Union’s Honorary President, Mary O’Sullivan, Honorary Vice President, Alan Lindley and 14 activists from across the island nominated by the Union’s five Industrial Divisions, the Migrant Workers’ Network, the Northern District and the Retired Members Section along with the Deputy General Secretary for Organising and Membership Development, Ethel Buckley.
The Equality Committee consulted with members of the Union’s LGBTQ Network and people with the lived experience of gender issues referred to in the Toolkit.
Their insights, both as Union members and people with first-hand experience, proved invaluable in the production of the Toolkit, which is aimed at encouraging everyone in SIPTU – Union staff, activists and members to communicate in a gender-inclusive way.
SIPTU Deputy General Secretary, Ethel Buckley said: “It’s a decade since SIPTU launched our campaign for marriage equality. Some of the hard-won progress in equality, diversity and inclusion made in Ireland around that time is now coming under pressure. SIPTU is committed as ever to promoting gender equality, which is one of the Union’s core values.
As a Union, we will not stand back when our core values are under attack. When workers’ rights are under attack we redouble our organising for fairness at work and justice in society.”