Report Release: ‘Trade Union Protections for Sex Workers’, Bangalore, 9 SEP 2009

Dear Friend(s)

Karnataka Sex Workers Union invites you to the

Releasing of the report

Trade Union Protections for Sex Workers

By Com. Ashim Roy (General Secretary, New Trade Union Initiative)

On 9^th September 2009, Wednesday, at 4PM

At Ashirwad, 30 St. Marks Road, Opposite State Bank of India, Bangalore

Trade Union Leaders, Human Rights Activists and Sexworker Leaders will address the meeting after the report release.

This report, Trade Union Protections for Sex Workers, shares insights from a meeting held from January 30 to February 1, 2009, in Belém, Brazil, in conjunction with the World Social Forum. The meeting brought together trade unions, sex workers, and other activists who believe that workers in the sex sector deserve basic labour rights, including the right to organize and bargain collectively, to be free of discrimination and to be free from forced labor. The participants came from Bolivia, Brazil, Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, the United States. Critical issues addressed during the meeting included:

– The links between trafficking, migration and sex work.

– How a trade union analysis of sex work might help address problems such as poor working conditions, or sex worker health and safety concerns – issues that most states and NGOs do not typically care about, since they treat sex workers as either victims or criminals.

– How to shape a common agenda with trade unions, when many do not automatically come from the understanding that “sex work is work.”

– Strategies for organizing within mainstream labour movements, and the ways in which alliances with a union movement could help sex workers combat stigma and police violence, and lobby for legal change.

Karnataka Sex Workers Union (KSWU) is a trade union of sexworkers (women, men and transgender) in Karnataka. KSWU strives to get sexwork recognised as dignified labour, demands labour rights that are guaranteed to all other workers and campaigns for the decriminalisation of sexwork. KSWU defends the rights of sexworkers and resists violence, oppression and exploitation by the police, goondas, government agencies and others. KSWU advocate for fair working conditions and social entitlements and full social security.

For more information, contact: 97310 18694, 99455 25411

In Solidarity

Geetha

General Secretary

Karnataka Sex Workers Union