Women Workers and the

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Unemployed women textile workers in 1952 White collar unions' equal pay campaign 1954 Sarah Boston is member of the national executive of the Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians.

It appears that she was largely responsible for the report Patterns of Discrimination published in 1975 which renminad tha mnsition exalllitu the position women within the industry and within the ACTT.

Some of the report's findings were typical-one in six of the union's members were women, but only one in seventeen of the shop stewards; in film and TV production 60% of women members were to be found in just three out of the 150 grades covered by the union.

Commenting on the post-war reaction against the employment of women, the report stated:

"women... in skilled grades • have now been almost entirely replaced by men. The division between men's and women's jobs has become more and more rigid in the last twenty years. 99.

And the author comments:

•"This situation had come about not so much through blatant discrimination, although some employers were guilty of it, but through an acceptance by both the union and the employ. ers that such a situation was an acceptable status quo"

(emphasis added)

If the Bibliography included is representative, this book ollets a very ustlur mavuucuun a ansful intendantion to the subject: only one other book of similar scope is listed.

• Women Workers starts with the 19th century in a chapter entitled "Their Proper Sphere at Home".

Separate organisation One of the main strands that runs through the early history of women worker trade unionists is their fight to join the existing trade unions-in the early 1800s men not only advised a policy of separate organisation but tried to establish them.

It was the textile unions that became the pioneers of mixed unions, and negotiated rates based 'on the rate for the job' and not a rate for the 'sex of the worker' The Women's Trade Union League, restructured in the late 1880s helped organise women in many ways-in separate organisations (because there was no other way), in craft unions and in the new general unions.

During the 1890s the women unionists affiliated grew from 2,000 to 70,000. In those days the Women's Trade Union Review had a series of articles on the views of trade unionists on organising women.

John Hendry, organiser of the Scottish Mill and Factory Workers Federal Union made an open attack:

"Women, as we in Scotland say, are 'kittle cattle' and if anyone has lingering doubts on that point which he desires to dispel, let him spend a few weeks in organising •work amongst women, and his cure will be complete.

•Women, broadly speaking, from a Trade Unionist standpoint are bad subjects. This is due not a little to the dependent and subordinate position the woman has been so long taught to look upon as her proper place, "She is difficult to get, and being got is difficult to keep."

The National Union of Bookbinders and Machine Rules Special Conference in 1901 considered 'unfair labour' to be women doing men's jobs at rates below the unions' rate.

Resolution to form a Female Section of the union resulted in a divided vote, one delegate arguing against: Ann McKinley and Bill MacKeith review 'Women Workers and the Trade Unions' by Sarah Boston 326pp, £12.50.

"women of today are of pushful manners and displace sion "" every walk and profes Balsillie from Edinburgh saw the issue more clearly:

*We are between two alternatives-that we get the girls in our power or leave them disregarded for employers to use against us."

It wasn't until 1918 that membership of both sexes was agreed. Some of the struggles in the early years worked both ways-women taking action for increased wages were replaced by scab men or young boys.

Employers were willing to use women as cheap labour until they started demanding higher and equal pay.

The separate union organisations on sex lines highlighted the problems of solidarity and also the sexist ideology that the women's place is "in the home" played its role-especially in times of economic crisis.

These are in contrast to examples of struggles. where women took the lead in an industrial dispute and were supported by male trade unionists.

Dockers' backing

The most telling case is of women workers at a vinegar and pickle factory in 1896 who were assisted by the Dockers Union.

Women in the early days also had, like the women of today, to contend with the treacherous role of the union bureaucracy (although one must take into Vallic democrats).

Examples are given of betrayal and sell-outs by them and the women's fight against applauded, one they must be fighting back in that period might be questioned as a tacticthe forming of breakaway unions.

Today we would certainly argue for challenging the leadership and replacing it with those prepared to fight and not for breaking away from the official trade inion movement.

Mary Macarthur with Sarah Boston makes one of the most important observations in the book when she states:

"Against this general picture of disunity of men and women workers the nine days of the General Strike stand out as a remarkable exception. In 1926 men and women workers united on class (our emphasis) lines."

She later makes the point that little attention has been given in trade union circles to the role women played in 1926, mainly due to the fact that the TUC only called out women railway clerical workers. Yet bulletins issued by workers during that period report on many women taking action without any lead or instruction from the bureaucracy.

Divisions encouraged The divisions between men and women increased-and were encouraged)during the economic crisis of the 1930s. One of the most telling examples of that period was in 1935 when the General Secretạry of the UPW wrote in his annual report:

"Division, segregation, deamalgamation, redundancy • and most of all our present ills are traceable to the policy of employing less men and more women."

At the UPW's 1935 conference a resolution for the immediate implementation of equal pay was passed but in the next breath a further resolution deploring the increasing ratio of women to men employed by the Post Office and demanding a halt to the trend.

Male and no doubt some fascist delegates attacked women as the cause of the economic crisis, and Mussolini and Hitler were commended for their defence of the male! The resolution was passed.

The union bureaucracy's role in 1935 in fostering racialist and sexist positions shows through even today Yet UCW leaders attack only left wing delegates and activists -for instance disciplining the members who took solidarity action over Grunwicks. trikers at Millway in 1914 Also when at a recent conference one woman delegateout of the vast women membership of the UPW-managed to get to the rostrum to speak there were cat calls, wolfwhistles and even sexist remarks from the union's executive! • The "abnormal" involvement of women in fulltime employment in the two imperialist wars focussed attention on the whole range of issues related to women's rights.

The number of nurseries in Britain increased from 100 to 1,182 between 1939 and 1943. During the second war, women's membership of trade unions increased threefold The central role in the decline in the provision of nurseries, without which "equal pay" or "equal opportunity" are meaningless, was played by the trade union leadership.

In 1946 the government cut the grant to local authorities to establish day nurseries from 100% to 50% (in wartime two-thirds of nursery places were in the day nurseries with longer hours than nursery schools).

In 1948 while the government was enacting the welfare state legislation, the TUC General Council opposed calls for the restoration of the 100% grant, and advocated private day nurseries and factory based nurseries that tie the mother to the employer.

"There is no doubt in the minds of the General Council that it would be doing grave injury to the life of the nation if women were persuaded or forced to neglect their domestic duties in order to enter industry Young children to cater for, » are particularly where there The lead of the TUC bureaucracy in enforcing bourgeois ideology about the role of women was in direct contradiction to the economic needs not only of married women to earn a wage but also of capital for more labour (the 1940s and 1950s were years of "labour shortage").

This contradiction is referred to by Sarah Boston and merits further study.

The book concludes in 1975 with the chapter "You'll Have to do it Yourselves"

The latter title illustrates one of the main emphases of this book-the documentation of the role of. the leadership of the official labour movement in holding back the development of the fight for women's rights.

At the TUC in 1968 the General Council, despite the fact that it was TUC policy to press for equal pay legislation, was arguing the merits of voluntary methods of implementing equal pay.

The TUC General Council opposed a call for support for industrial action to secure equal pay and in November that year the TUC's women's officer, Ethel Chipcase, said to a conference on equal pay:

"If you want revolution you must do it yourselves."

To her dismay, women did. 1968 was the year that women machinists. at Dagenham brought Fords to a standstill over grading and pay, in dispute that is a landmark in the history of the struggle for women's rights.

Equal pay has been the policy of the TUC since 1888but there was a lack of commitment from the bureaucracy then and today.

Sidney Webb, a Fabian, believed for instance that wage rates based on sex were justifiable.

Mary McArthur's comment about the employers' attempts to avoid equal pay could have been said in 1970 about the Equal Pay Act-but was in fact made in 1916:

"The theory of equal pay for equal work was accepted but in practice we found that the work was scarcely ever recognised as equal. Some simple adjustment was made to machinery -a twist drill, perhaps, was replaced by a flatcutter .. and it was declared the work was not the same."

An example of attitudes on legislation in the early days could well have lessons for women today.

In 1877 there were major debates on the question, and the Women's Protectiye and Provident League (founded in 1874) which had a mixture of feminism, trade unionism and middle class attitudes running through it, had the controversial policy of opposing any factory.

legislation which restricted the hours women could work or the jobs which women could do. on two principles:

1. that women should have, like men, the right to do any JOD anu lo wulk we Hours wivy wished.

2. the way to restrict hours was by organisation not by legislation.

The League was attacked on the last point for being "middle class" and yet experience has shown that trade union organisation has gained better protection for women workers than statutory provision.

Battles on this question between the League and the TUC dominated the period when the Factory Act and the Restrictive Practice was going through parliament and Sarah Boston believes that the women were quite justified in being suspicious of the TUC bureauстасу giving wholehearted support to measures which restricted the hours and jobs women could work and do.

This book gives a valuable account of the struggles of women in trade unions, of the influences of feminism, and the record of leading figures, trade unions and governments on questions of women's rights, pay, grading, training, socialised care of children, health and contraception.

The author also has an eye for the record of prominent leaders like Alan Fisher of NUPE who failed in an attempt to water down a resolution on equal pay at the 1963 TUC and Boyd of the AUEW:

"I never want the women of this country to lose their femininity ... I never want to see them performing the hard, heavy, dirty and hazardous jobs which is the common lot of women in certain non-capitalist countries."

But of course in restricting the argument to a purely trade union level ( Unless new machinery is created "), albeit a kind of trade unionism to which the trade union bureaucracy is hostile, the author . denies the need for a discussion of the necessary political programme and organisation to defend and advance the rights of both women and men workers.

Nevertheless this book should be read by all revolutionaries: order it from your local library now or if you can afford it, it. would be £12.50 well spent.

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