T&g Handbook: a Guide to Avoid Action

Scan page 4

A new women's handbook, just produced by the Transport and General Workers Union, is an attractively produced booklet about "policies and action for the TGWU"

It is also written in a very clear style. It deals with problems of women's equality inside the union, in the workplace and in the eyes of the law.

It also includes interviews with a number of women TGWU members, and notes on pioneering women trade unionists.

The handbook does not disguise the fact that women are very much underrepresented in the leadership of the T&G. in comparison with their growing numbers in the union.

It offers some suggestions about how this might be changed. But the really important question of women's equality at work is not effectively dealt with at all.

The handbook sets out in great detail what the "Sex Discrimination Act" and other legislation says.

And. to its credit. it also points out some of the problems with these laws. What it doesn't make absolutely clear is that parliamentary legislation isn't likely to given women equality.

Women's fight for equality at work boils down the the strength and militancy of the union, and its willingness to take up these issues.

For even where the law does support a woman over discrimination, a tribunal generally takes months to meet and reach a decision.

A Woman Worker supporter recently met a member of the Dublin "Women's Right to Choose Group*. , and found out about their struggle for abortion rights in the Republic.

How long has the abortion you set up been going?

Only a couple of weeks so far. Up till then the "Wellwoman Clinic" in Dublin used to arrange for women in the Republic to get abortions in England. But the Wellwoman deals with every aspect of women's health and just couldn't cope with the number of women wanting to be referred to abortion clinics. So we set up the Right to Choose Centre especially for that.

How does the centre operate?

We have a full time worker and trained staff. But we have to survive on donations alone, since there's absolutely no chance of getting state financial aid! We make it as smooth as possible for the women. We book their flight to England, arrange for someone to meet them at the airport, fix up hotel accommodation and -of course book them in at the clinic. All in all it costs about £160—which is obviously hard for women without much money Are you planning campaign clinics too?

Yes-you can't really separate the two. The Wellwoman clinic provided an abortion referral centre and a contraceptive service too. More recently a number of Family Planning Clinics have been set up in Dublin and elsewhere.

These aren't technically illegal at the moment They sort of operate in a loop-hole in the law. It's illegal to sell contraceptives, so they given them away and ask for donations to keep the clinics going.

But Haughey (the Prime Minister) is about to bring in a new law to restrict the Family Planning Clinics and try to shut them down. In places like Galway, the the Church and the "League of Decency" are flat out on an anti-contraceptive And even if the employee wins the case, the woman concerned often gets no more than a small cash payment and doesn't always get her job back, even if she's been unfairly dismissed.

The only real safeguard for women's equality at work lies in the union's backing her case with industrial action.

The same is true of the section in the handbook called "Bargaining with Employers for Equality"

Resolution

This contains a number of good resolutions, and model claims on everything from maternity and paternity rights to recruitment and training.

It also lists some companies where concessions have been won by TGWU members. But what the book fails to offer is any commitment that the TGWU will adopt a policy of automatically backing industrial action taken by TGWU members to win such claims.

Of course, the, T&G isn't likely to do soespecially when you consider that the T&G Icadership hasn't even given official backing to the women and men on strike for months on end at, say. Adwest Engineering in Reading, in a dispute over something as basic and vital as victimisation of union members.

It's just not good enough for the union to produce model clauses unless it puts its weight behind them when disputes are being fought against the employers. campaign.

If the clinics are to survive, they'll have to break the new law and build up support from the women who use them and from the labour movement to defend themselves.

Are you involved in campaigning too?

Well, we've only been going for a short while. But we intend to launch a pro-choice campaign and to campaign around the contraceptives issue. There's only seven of us so far, though we've got the support of several left groups.

Even the women's movement in Dublin is cautious. Many women's groups don't have a pro-choice position for fear of alienating women. We're planning to work for support from the labour movement. The issue has already been debated in the NUJ. That's a British-based union which organises in the Republic too, and has a pro-choice policy.

There was a big row here recently with rightwing, anti-abortion journalists threatening to resign if the union's policy was made to apply to the Republic as well as Britain. But it did bring the whole question into the open. Until recently no-one discussed abortion in public or in the media, giving both sides of the argument.

We hope to get support for the centre from other British-based unions with a good policy on abortion, and from Dublin Trades Council. But it's an uphill struggle.

How is it that when about 9,000 Irish women each year get an abortion in England, there's no strong campaign for it to be legalised in the Republic?

Well, one thing is the tremendous power of the Church here, and its built-in links with the state and the media. Also, many women think that since England's not too far away, its all right to go there for an abortion and not bother to fight for legalised abortion here. But of course, that's easy to say if you've got the money. The fact is, middle class, well-off women will always get round the problem. It's those of us who don't have much money who really suffer. How do you see the future?

Well I think the contraceptive question has been won-what we're getting now is a rearguard action, trying to turn back the clock, though we're still a long way from free contraception for whoever wants it. As for abortion, its going to be a long, hard battle, but we've made a start.

However, while some of the TGWU's policies for women's equality look all right on paper, others are an obvious sell-out from the start.

This is especially true of the T&G policy on nurseries and creches. The handbook says that:

"The TGWU supports the full provision of a comprehensive state system of nursery schools and day nurseries for the under 5's." and points out that at the moment this provision is totally inadequate and, with the present government, will get a lot worse."

Workplace Nurseries Does it, therefore, urge union members to fight the Tory cuts and demand free state nurseries? Not a bit of it. Instead it opts for a policy of seeking workplace nurseries.

This policy is adopted despite the fact that one of the TGWU's own officials interviewed carlier in the handbook says of workplace nurseries:

* hope I'm not intruding 10g LINCH krow 12.

"There's always the | danger with factory nurseries that when industrial action comes up, the management could threaten women with their jobs. The answer is with the local authorities.

Never mind. The handbook has another solution:

"Alternatively, the employer and union might keep a list of local registered childminders available to all parents"!

Available, that is, if they can afford £20 or more a week for each child.

Reading between the lines, you get a distinct feeling that the T&G leadership isn't all that committed to fighting for women's equality.

Typically perhaps, the section about changing sexist attitudes and practices is opposite a picture of T&G women demonstrating under a banner reading "T&G. The grip of brotherhood the world o'er"!

More importantly, the T&G is also in the grip of leaders who are busily caving in to the Tories, and refusing to lead an effective fight for the rights of women-or any other workers!