Pay equity big issue

Press, 11 September 1989, Page 16

Pay equity big issue

Pay equity — equal value being given to work of equal responsibility — is the major women’s issue of the decade, believes Jenny Grieg. Jenny is the co-con-venor of the women’s district committee of the Council of Trade Unions. “Winning the vote was women’s first major victory, and since then women have been in the forefront of many social reforms. Pay equity and equal employment opportunities are the main issues now — and will be in the future,” she says. Women in the trade union movement are spearheading the pay equity campaign, says Jenny. But she believes all New Zealand women should be involved. “We need to be in solidarity on this issue. We need to work together to win more respect for women’s work and women’s rights.” The Council of Trade Unions wants pay equity legislation in place before the general election next October. A meeting to discuss the pay equity issue, and to commemmorate Women’s Suffrage Day, will be held at the Trade Union Centre, 199 Armagh Street, next Tuesday evening, September 19, at 7.30 p.m. Anyone interested is invited. Jenny suggests women wear a white camellia — as worn by pro-suffrage politicians. Suffrage Day Sue Suckling, a Christchurch businesswoman, will be the guest speaker at a Women’s Suffrage Day lunch this Sunday,

September 17. Sue will give the annual Hilda Lovell-Smith lecture to the Christchurch branch of the National Council of Women. The lunch will be held at the Old Stone House in Shalamar Drive, Cashmere, from 12.30 p.m. Members and friends are welcome. Tickets cost $lB. Phone 320-721. Native Americans David Risling is a Californian Indian, a member of the Hoopa tribe, and a professor of Native American Studies at the University of California. He also teaches at a university for native Americans — the only one of its kind in California — and is active in the struggle for Indian selfdetermination. David Risling is in Christchurch this week as part of a national tour to compare the Indian ways of life with those of the Maori people. He will speak at a public meeting tomorrow evening, September 12, at the Workers’ Educational Association, 59 Gloucester Street, at 7.30 p.m.