How have women organized to remedy these problems with the union hierarchy?
Petrovic: Women trade unionists from Central and Eastern Europe started requesting early on in Bucharest in May of 1994 and later in Budapest in November 1996, that a women s network for Central and Eastern Europe be established. Although the recommendations, initiatives and demands were given the utmost attention in Brussels [where the ICFTU is based] the response was silence. The ICFTU maintained that it does not have the necessary finances to enter into such a demanding project. Unsatisfied with slow pace of ICFTU s political structures and administration, women representing several countries from Central and Eastern Europe first met on November 6-7, 1997, at a pre-session in Zagreb where the International Women s Conference was held due to the initiative of the Women s Section of the Union of Autonomous Trade Unions of Croatia, in cooperation with the Solidarity Center (of the AFL-CIO) situated there. On November 14-15, 1997, in the city of Gdansk, the Women s Committee of the NSZZ
