Home-work: Present & Future

Workshop Leader:
Rhonda Love, Assistant Professor,
Community Health, Faculty of
Medicine, University of Toronto

The session featured an examination of what has been learned about women doing piece work at home and the poor conditions surrounding that work, and how knowledge about home-work in the garment industry can be applied to computer work at home, to protect the interests of modern women. The major problems were examined, such as deskilling, stress, and machine pacing and control of worker productivity. Possible legislative measures were discussed, as well as the possible advantages of home-work for specific sectors of the workforce, such as the disabled.

Action:

• The unionization of women must be intensely pursued, and unions must be pressured from within so that all negotiations will include worker-protection clauses that take into account all aspects of the new technological work environment.

• Women's groups should raise the awareness of their membership through conferences and workshops of all kinds, promoting retraining and career planning.

• Women's groups must pursue the systematic lobbying of government to promote improved legislation.