Open up Jobs to Women

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Newspaper owners have launched a major initiative against the National Union of Journalists and the growing readiness of members to fight for closed shops.

A letter marked Strictly Private and Confidential, was sent out to all Newspaper Society managements calling for a special fund to protect employers who -faced demands for a closed shop.

In Kettering, this struggle came to the fore after a four month strike over fringe benefits, when 60 journalists were locked out the day after, returning to work.

They had refused to work with nine members who tried to resign and join the scab organisation, the Institute of Journalists.

The fund-made up from £100 a week for four weeks from each newspaper office-is now almost certainly being used to support the Kettering, East Midland Allied Press management.

The letter was the basis for a major response by provincial jourmalists to the May 5-6 24 hour national strike call.

Despite a full knowledge at 24 hour strikes in provincial apers (most of which do not have 100% membership) will never halt the paper almost all provincial papers supported the call.

The Kettering dispute, its relation to the Newspaper Society, and the Institute of Journalists, whose existence is nurtured by employers, is of major importance to the NUJ.

The demands must be for major strike action by NUJ strong sections, the forging of links to build supporting action with the print unions and the immediate all-out blacking of the Press Association whose copy is now allowing the Kettering paper to appear.

It is now clear that the union leadership at Plessey's telecommunications factory at Southwick in Sunderland is prepared to wage no fight whatsoever against the scheduled closure on 2 June.

This is shown by the mass meeting called by the shop stewards on 29 April to present the results of their feverish negotiations with Eric Varley, the Industry Secretary, and with the management of Plessey's: namely nothing.

Alex Forrest, secretary of the shop stewards jomt action committee stated afterwards that no industrial action of any kind had been proposed to the members.

The need, however, is for a clear programme that includes the demand for work-sharing on full pay, an occupation to force. the nationalisation ot Plessey elecommunications and to get orders for equipment from the GPO as the only alternative to "negotiated" redundancies.

SAVE NHS

Encouraged by the illusion of "equal. opportunity" provided by the Sex Discrimination Act women in heavy engineering industry are beginning to break through into the sphere of traditional "men's jobs"

In British Leyland, Cowley, the 1,000 manual jobs in the Assembly Plant are still-in spite ot the Act, passed 18 months ago-only open to male workers, apart from the few hundred jobs in the factory's trim shop.

This is because Leyland take all workers on the contract of "fortnight about"-alternate day and night shift working.

The Protective legislation prevents employers putting women onto nights in factories but exemption orders can be issued if requested jointly by management and unions.

In the last few weeks women working in the Cowley trim shop have been seeking such an order so that they can apply for other jobs in the factory.

Last week a male worker took a job in the trim shop and the women workers can see that the SDA is being used to cut their job opportunities not enlarge them.

The move for an exemption order is therefore the way to open up the whole factory for women workers.

In the neighbouring Cowley body plant, where an exemption order has been issued, the weekly recruitment women.

Many of these women are choosing to work nights even when permanent day arrangements are available.

There are other moves in other parts of the country both in the car industry, as at Longbridge, and other, traditionally male worker heavy industries. Recently the press carried the story of the first woman applying to work at the coalface down a mine.

There can be no better way to raise the questions of women's oppression and sexist attitudes than by the entry of women themselves in force into these spheres of employment and so into the powerful engineering trade unions.

Oxford Trades Council is holding a public meeting on Friday 13 May in order to discuss and carry forward these important developments and other major questions affecting women's rights.

The leaflet being used publicise the meeting argues:

"Demand equal job opportunity.

The Sex Discrimination Act says job opportunity should be equal for men and women. But...

* At Cowley there are 6,000 jobs closed to women. All the manual operators in the Assembly Plant are men, except in the trim shop.

*Unemployment is rising twice as fast among women as among men.

*Official figures don't register the large numbers of women out of work who do not register as unemployed:

Unemployment hits everyone. In the last three years it has doubled to record levels-worse than anything since the last war.

The arguments that Women work for pin money' or 'A woman's place is in the home' are used as excuses.

Most women do work outside the home-nearly all Britain's single women and nearly half of Britain's married women.

All of us, men and right to a job." provoked by the company's managing director speaking on BBC Radio Merseyside the previous night, being interviewed about the company's record profits, the highest the company's history.

The way now to prove that the company has more than adequate funds to finance a sick pay scheme is for the shop stewards committee to demand that the books of the company are thrown open to an elected committee of trade unionists.

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