By PAUL MILLAR
IT WAS no revolution, more a prolonged push for a resolution as union diehards took to the streets this week, continuing decades of campaigning for equal pay rates for women.
As union rallies go, it was low key, with supporters gathering at Trades Hall and then taking their lobby to the streets as part of Equal Pay Day.
They have been doing so for more than a decade, with Suzie Iskra saying the unionists would continue the march as it was the right thing to do.
An Arbitration Commission decision in 1972 declared that women on federal awards were entitled to the same pay as men for equivalent work.
However, Ms Iskra said over a lifetime the average Australian woman earned about $1 million less than her male counterpart.
Ms Iskra said the pay gap was still 17.5 per cent in 2013, so even though more women were now finishing secondary education, enrolling at university and in professional jobs than men, female graduate salaries were just 90.9 per cent of the pay for male graduates.
In post-graduate jobs female salaries were 85 per cent of male post-graduates, she said.
Ms Iskra, the co-convenor of Womens Unionist Movement, said the annual rally might lack profile but the cause was always worthwhile.
“We aim to raise awareness every year,” she said.
“We’ll keep chipping away. If you do nothing then you are already defeated,” she said.
“Women have fought long battles throughout history and that is what we are doing,” she said.
For the first time in its 106 year history Geelong Trades Hall Council has more women than men on its executive.
Ms Iskra, from the Australian Services Union(private sector) is vice president.
