A group of participants argue that the missing ingredient to the Women Deliver is progressive trade unionism and have organised a feminist tour of the Victorian Trades Hall building in Melbourne to prove it.
To address the gap, Public Services International (PSI), APHEDA and the Victorian Trades Hall Council, organised a feminist tour of the oldest, continuously operating trade union building in the world. APHEDA is Australian People for Health, Education and Development Abroad (APHEDA), also known as Union Aid Abroad, is a global justice organisation of the Australian union movement.
Melbourne has a unique trade union history – being the first place in the world to secure an 8-hour work day in 1956 and a living wage. The tour included historic victories of women unionists including the garment workers in 1884, winning equal pay in 1972 as well as more recent victories winning paid domestic violence leave, large pay rises for women care workers whose work had been undervalued and their current campaign for reproductive leave right throughout the lifecycle.
According to Kate Lappin, the Asia Pacific Regional Secretary of Public Services International, trade unionism is the antidote to many of the barriers facing women – from the gender pay gap, unpaid and underpaid care work, expensive and inaccessible health systems to rising household costs of energy, water, education and services, poverty and rising rates of wealth inequality. Trade unions have also been instrumental in securing critical social rights, campaigning for marriage equality in Australia, against racism and ICE raids in the US, highlighting the gendered impacts of IMF policies like privatisation in South Asia and trade unions secured a global convention on Violence and Harassment – the only binding UN instrument to recognise gender based violence. And in Australia, unions secured paid domestic violence leave for all impacted workers.
Lappin says that the cost of Women Deliver, the visa barriers for unionists and the lack of focus on the drivers of inequality mean that very few trade unionists have attended. The Melbourne Declaration fails to mention trade unionism or the increasing concentration of power, wealth and influence in the hands of a few billionaires and corporations.
“It’s impossible to meaningfully advance women’s human rights without a strategy to address the growing pernicious influence of billionaires and multinational corporations who are advancing a form of authoritarian capitalism. The only way to counter them is the collective power of movements, and the trade union movement is the largest form of organised power in the world,” she said.
It’s an opinion echoed by Dr Renu Adhikari, the founder of Women’s Rehabilitation Centre (WOREC) Nepal, a well-known women’s rights organisation that deals with a broad range of women’s rights issues but started with a focus on trafficking and migrant workers.
To address the gap, Public Services International (PSI), APHEDA and the Victorian Trades Hall Council, organised a feminist tour of the oldest, continuously operating trade union building in the world. APHEDA is Australian People for Health, Education and Development Abroad (APHEDA), also known as Union Aid Abroad, is a global justice organisation of the Australian union movement.
Did you know? Melbourne has a unique trade union history
Melbourne has a unique trade union history – being the first place in the world to secure an 8-hour work day in 1956 and a living wage. The tour included historic victories of women unionists including the garment workers in 1884, winning equal pay in 1972 as well as more recent victories winning paid domestic violence leave, large pay rises for women care workers whose work had been undervalued and their current campaign for reproductive leave right throughout the lifecycle.
According to Kate Lappin, the Asia Pacific Regional Secretary of Public Services International, trade unionism is the antidote to many of the barriers facing women – from the gender pay gap, unpaid and underpaid care work, expensive and inaccessible health systems to rising household costs of energy, water, education and services, poverty and rising rates of wealth inequality. Trade unions have also been instrumental in securing critical social rights, campaigning for marriage equality in Australia, against racism and ICE raids in the US, highlighting the gendered impacts of IMF policies like privatisation in South Asia and trade unions secured a global convention on Violence and Harassment – the only binding UN instrument to recognise gender based violence. And in Australia, unions secured paid domestic violence leave for all impacted workers.
Lappin says that the cost of Women Deliver, the visa barriers for unionists and the lack of focus on the drivers of inequality mean that very few trade unionists have attended. The Melbourne Declaration fails to mention trade unionism or the increasing concentration of power, wealth and influence in the hands of a few billionaires and corporations.
“It’s impossible to meaningfully advance women’s human rights without a strategy to address the growing pernicious influence of billionaires and multinational corporations who are advancing a form of authoritarian capitalism. The only way to counter them is the collective power of movements, and the trade union movement is the largest form of organised power in the world,” she said.
It’s an opinion echoed by Dr Renu Adhikari, the founder of Women’s Rehabilitation Centre (WOREC) Nepal, a well-known women’s rights organisation that deals with a broad range of women’s rights issues but started with a focus on trafficking and migrant workers.
"International conferences provide a lot of focus on the problems individual women face, yet often fail to address the systemic issues like privatisation of public services, tax avoidance, the influence of the rich and foreign corporations or the extraordinary power now of Big Tech. And too often these conferences don’t come up with solutions"
“International conferences like Women Deliver provide a lot of focus on the problems individual women face, yet often fail to address the systemic issues like privatisation of public services, tax avoidance, the influence of the rich and foreign corporations or the extraordinary power now of Big Tech. And too often these conferences don’t come up with solutions. That’s why the best part of the conference was the tour of Trades Hall. It shows that trade unionism can incorporate deeply feminist approaches and deliver real change for women,” she said.
Bridget Burns, Director of Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) also agrees that feminist trade unions need a bigger focus when discussing women’s human rights.
“I genuinely feel like there's never been a more important time for understanding the history of what it takes to shift power, and I think that it really lends itself in building collective power. And while there is value in gathering together to share information about what we are facing in our own countries, in our own communities, I think we also really need to deeply understand our history and strategies that have actually created change and shifted power,” she said.
Women Deliver has brought a lot of momentum and spotlight on the continuing fight for women’s human rights across the world. But PSI organised the tour of Trades Hall Council because they argue that trade unions are critical to achieving women’s economic rights.
They believe that trade unions are a key part of ensuring that the momentum that Women Deliver brings turns into action, policy and law changes, not just words and hopes.
(Jasper Davis was part of CNS team at Women Deliver Conference 2026 and is a Melbourne-based student journalist. He is interesting is music, culture, politics and human rights.)
Bridget Burns, Director of Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) also agrees that feminist trade unions need a bigger focus when discussing women’s human rights.
“I genuinely feel like there's never been a more important time for understanding the history of what it takes to shift power, and I think that it really lends itself in building collective power. And while there is value in gathering together to share information about what we are facing in our own countries, in our own communities, I think we also really need to deeply understand our history and strategies that have actually created change and shifted power,” she said.
Women Deliver has brought a lot of momentum and spotlight on the continuing fight for women’s human rights across the world. But PSI organised the tour of Trades Hall Council because they argue that trade unions are critical to achieving women’s economic rights.
They believe that trade unions are a key part of ensuring that the momentum that Women Deliver brings turns into action, policy and law changes, not just words and hopes.
Jasper Davis - CNS
(Citizen News Service)
(Jasper Davis was part of CNS team at Women Deliver Conference 2026 and is a Melbourne-based student journalist. He is interesting is music, culture, politics and human rights.)
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