ENGLISH
This is the web site of the LGBT group of the Dutch trade union for the public sector ABVAKABO. We apologise that the bulk of the content is in Dutch, but please bear in mind that we are part of a Dutch trade union.
ABVAKABO’s LGBT group has been active on international level since its early days.
Our activities included:
* lobbying for the global union organisation PSI (= Public Services International) to recognise LGBT trade union policies as an issue to be picked up by its affiliates (Helsinki congress resolution, 1993);
* contributing to several seminars on LGBT trade union policies of our German sister union ver.Di (at that time called ÖTV); and sharing the information booth with them at Europride Cologne (various years) (picture);
* organising and hosting, in co-operation with others, the first global conference on Trade Unions, Homosexuality and Work (Amsterdam, 1998);
* contributing to the follow-up conference Workers Out! (Sydney, 2002);
* lobbying for a formal recognition of LGBT trade union policies contributing at the European trade union level in the ETUC action program (Prague meeting, 2003);
* helping the organisation of, and participating in, the first meeting of the global Sexual Diversity Forum of Public Services International and Education International (Porto Alegre, 2004);
* working together with European trade union activists in a network;
* "twinning" with our Brazilian sister unions and contributing to the LGBT trade union policy seminar of PSI Brazil (São Paulo, 2006);
* contributing to and participating in, the Workers Out conference in conjunction with the Out Games in Montréal, 2006;
* preparing for, and contributing to, the second meeting of the EI/PSI LGBT Forum, which took place on the 21st and 22nd of September 2007 in conjunction with the PSI Congress in Vienna;
* assisting in the LGBT project of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), which started with an inquiry into the membership's LGBT policies, together with ILGA, in November 2007 and resulted in a conference in Brussels, in January, 2008;
* participating in the LGBT trade union mission to Poland, together with members from PSI, ver.Di, and UNISON, to meet with delegates from human rights organisations, LGBT organisation and trade unions and to enciourage Polish trade unions to pick up the issue of defending LGBT rights at work and in the labour market (2008);
* assisting in the development of a project, by the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation FNV and Company Pride Platform in the Netherlands, on developing tools to prevent and combat day-to-day exclusion, bullying, haarassment of LGBT workers;
* contributing to, and participating in, the Copenhagen Workers Out conference, organised in conjunction with the Out Games 2009.
To download ABVAKABO's LGBT group's Policy Plan for 2005 - 2008, click here.
