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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2024
Introduction
This chapter describes the global campaign for an ILO Convention as it continued between the first set of negotiations at the ILC in 2018 and the second and final negotiations at the ILC's 107th session in 2019. We document the progress with the campaign and the preparations carried out by the Workers’ Group for the 2019 negotiations. This is followed by a discussion of the ILO's preparation for and lead-up to the 2019 Standard-Setting Committee, including a questionnaire for member states contained in the ILO's “brown report” (ILO 2019a), and the results and draft text of the Convention and Recommendation, published in the ILO's two-volume “blue report” (ILO 2019b, 2019c). Finally, we delve into the negotiations for Convention 190 and Recommendation 206 in the 2019 Standard-Setting Committee, highlighting the specific issues of concern for workers, and the linkages and resonance of the negotiations with the campaign priorities.
In the second half of 2018 and early 2019 the global campaign gained a new dynamic. Many women in unions realized that, following the outcome of the 2018 negotiations, there was much at stake. This motivated workers to engage in intense campaigning and preparations for the 2019 Standard-Setting Committee; Martle Keyter, vice-president of the South African FEDUSA confederation, said in her interview:
After the 2018 ILC we went home, and we started campaigning … We engaged in much more concerted country-level campaigning, and this is when the 2019 campaign really started for us. At the end of the 2018 Standard-Setting Committee the employers argued that there were so many existing ILO Conventions that had not been ratified that it was preferable and sufficient to support a Recommendation. This really helped to mobilize the unions. Women in the trade unions took the issue to the parliament and to the president, we held rallies and meetings, we used social media – and we got the message out there to women workers.
Added to this was greater engagement in the campaign on the part of human rights and feminist and NGO allies.
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