Collective bargaining and the promotion of gender equality at work: opportunities and challenges for trade unions

Four areas are discussed to make the case for the importance of harnessing collective bargaining for the promotion of equality. These concern contemporary European developments; advantages of collective bargaining compared with other strategies for promoting equality in employment; the benefits which can accrue to unions from making a positive link between equality and collective bargaining, and the negative consequences of failing to make such a link. The article then discusses some of the issues which harnessing collective bargaining for equality promotion raises for trade unions. These concern the content and priorities of bargaining and the identity of negotiators and union power holders. I argue that an approach which seeks simply to 'add women on' to bargaining agendas and as union members is an inadequate one and that more radical change in trade unions is required.