STUDY Trade Unions in Transformation Building Trade Union Power with Gender Equality: The Case of the Unified Workers’ Central of Brazil DIDICE GODINHO DELGADO October 2017 n In 2015, the Unified Workers‘ Central(Central Única dos Trabalhadores, CUT) of Bra­zil, one of the world’s largest trade union federations and the most important one in Latin America, implemented gender parity in its decision-making bodies at national and state level. With this step it put itself at the forefront of the international trade union movement as far as gender equality is concerned. n Gender Parity marks the culmination of a decades-long construction process of more equal gender relations. This extraordinary power building has taken place in a progressive and open trade union atmosphere, incorporating the women work­ers’ request to become subjects of this trade union movement and has brought real transformations. n While the illegitimate Temer government is systematically dismantling public policy as well as social and labour rights, the progress in gender equality and other anti­discriminatory policies will not be affected by the regression dominating the political path of Brazil today. Gender equality has shaped the CUT´s identity, its associational and societal power is intrinsically linked to women´s participation, and there is no way back. n Trade Unions in Transformation is an FES project that identifies unions’ power re­sources and capabilities that contribute to successful trade union action. This study features among two dozen case studies from around the world demonstrating how unions have transformed to get stronger.