By Angel Anderson

As week one of the Tradeswomen Building Bridges delegation draws to a close, I am reflecting on how grateful I am. I have had the opportunity to work with my delegate colleagues, allied organizations, and the Filipino sisters. I’ve learned so much about the barriers Filipino women face when attempting to enter and maintain employment and training opportunities in the construction workforce.

I learned that the average construction worker wage in the Philippines is no higher than that of an average worker in an unskilled work role. From what I understand, it’s significantly lower than that of a worker in a call center.

Construction is one of the most booming industries in the Philippines right now. There is space for new workers to enter, but women still hold less than 2% of that space.

From my understanding (after speaking with participants and event organizers from AWWCI) this may be partially to do with fear of not being accepted and/or taken seriously by (primarily) male employers, companies, and counterparts who are responsible for assuring the employment and safety of women in these work spaces.

For myself, being a unionized female worker in Canada I already know that I will never have to face this type of discrimination alone. Our unions have the strength and power to act on our behalf. The union fights for our rights whenever we face the same adversities that Filipino women face. The Filipina women stand together, but they have much less institutional support. We all know what it’s like to work in a culture that does not accept us working in traditionally male dominated fields.

This week I had the privilege to witness the level of dedication, commitment, and courage that all of the women who participated in our carpentry and plumbing training demonstrated. Many of them took time off of work, left their families, and traveled great distances for the opportunity to grow and learn with us. They knew that this would be a very limited, and maybe “once in a lifetime” training opportunity for them.

I think as a Canadian woman I take for granted that I have these training opportunities available to me regularly. I have secure employment as a female worker, and also protection against discrimination from my union, employers, and colleagues at all times.

The women out here have much less, if any of that. To create lasting changes that will help them to move forward in construction, it’s my belief that the AWWCI cannot do it alone. In my opinion we need to see more North American organizations, employers, and companies take a stand and use their power and influence in the industry to advocate for women’s rights here. We need to support more programs for women in the Philippines.

In Canada our rights have already been established, and it is my hope that any organizer, employer, and worker who reads this takes the time to consider what we have available to us currently, and what we have to offer. We need to help these hard working tradeswomen find the strength to break through the barriers that they face, and get to where they deserve to be.

My biggest take away from this delegation so far has been that tradeswomen in the Philippines are not fighting for anything less than to have equal rights and to be accepted in an industry that they are passionate about. They are painters, carpenters, electricians, etc, and all they want is the right to offer skilled work, and to provide much needed services in their communities. In my opinion they deserve that right and with more support from powerful North American construction organizations I believe that this is possible.