Industry says it's 'ready to fight' sexual harassment in skilled trades

Unions and trade agencies say a new report that highlights widespread sexual harassment in the skilled trades underscores the importance of ongoing work to bring gender equity to the sector.

Last week, the YWCA released a report that says an overwhelming majority of female and gender-diverse tradespeople have been harassed at work, typically by men in positions of power.

The non-profit organization said the harassment is driving women away from the skilled trades, and industry leaders need to commit to changing workplace culture, or risk floundering in an ongoing worker shortage.

Shannon Trites, executive director of the Automotive Sector Council of Nova Scotia, said change will not be easy, but she sees it as the only way forward.

"If you want to stay in business, you're going to need to increase and change the way you attract individuals to your business," Trites said in an interview.

Findings useful

She said the report's findings were not surprising, but they are useful.

Only 12 per cent of the respondents to the YWCA survey were part of automotive trades. Trites said she'd like to recreate some of the YWCA's work with a focus on her industry.

"My idea is to take this report as a cry, and then say, 'We need to understand our industry better.'"

The YWCA report has four recommendations for unions, employers, and sector associations: 

• Commit to continuous training on diversity, equity, and inclusion and psychological safety.
• Invest in sexualized violence training for staff who respond to incidents.
• Create standalone sexualized violence policies.
• Create a staffed, shared service to support small to medium businesses with responding to sexual and gender-based violence.

Brittany Colburn – an organizer with the Labourers International Union of North America, Local 615, which represents about 700 construction workers in Nova Scotia – was also unsurprised by the report's findings.

"I deal a lot with our members, and I come from the field, so I have had some similar experiences to what was shared," she said.

She said she was encouraged to see the recommendations align with some of her union's ongoing work.

"We already have a lot of great programs and initiatives in place … there's a lot of space where we're already doing this work, so that just kind of reaffirms that we are on the right track, and perhaps we can expand some of the initiatives that we're doing."

'Learning sessions'

Colburn said there are voluntary anti-sexual harassment "learning sessions" available to members, and the theme of inclusion is being woven into existing mandatory training programs on workplace health and safety.

She said more women are gradually entering positions of power in her industry, bolstering the effort to change the workplace culture.

"We're more than ready to continue to fight the good fight," she said.

Michel Raymond said that fight will require teamwork.

Raymond, vice-president for the Nova Scotia branch of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, said no individual employer or organization can make meaningful change on its own.

"The [YWCA] report is an indication that we need stronger collaboration," he said.

He said he'd like to see a cross-industry strategy to work on the report's recommendations.