[page 5]
"right to work"; they do it because they have to. Most of them are women alone or with husbands in low-paid jobs; as prices money to make enda meet, but society says after the children (unpaid, of course).
grossly inadequate nursery unpaid daytime job - in other words, all night, 10 p.m. to 6 a.m, for the magnificent sum of around £12-15. With conditions like this, the "double oppression of vomen" has gone about as far as it can 20.
[page 6]
Night cleaners all over the country are coming to realise that the only way to stick up for themselves is to remind the contractors who employ them that they aren't "just women", grateful for a few pennies - they are women workers, with a union, and if they stop work it will hurt. Women have a right to work - but like any other worker, they have a right to decide their own conditions.
We will be publishing more details about the nightcleaners' campaign in the next issue, but if you would like to help spread the campaign in the meantime, contact May Hobbs, Cleaners Action Group, 13 Middle Lane, London N.8 (tel. 01-348 2817), or your nearest Socialist Woman Group (see p.19).
Felicity Trodd WE RECENTLY TALKED TO Margaret Sim, an assistant secretary of a local union branch, about the role of women in the strike. The topic has received a lot of press publicity, almost all of it unfavourable to the strikers as a whole, and especially insulting to the women involved. Margaret Sim described the campaign against the "Hello girls" as disgusting - and just not true. The press were greatly exaggerating the numbers of girls working during the strike and those who did were not union members, who were all out, Unions always have proportionately fewer women members than men because of the social cireumstances of women in paid employment. Women hardly ever expect to be working full time all their lives as men do - they're bound to get married and need time off to have children, at least, So in Wren House, the Overseas Telecommunications Office, there is an annual turnover of 75% of the 400 In the same building, according to Margaret, they are permanently 60 people short. Bosses well know that women have been trained all their lives to be pleasant and agreeable -it's part of being a telephonist and it's part of being super-exploited.
But despite all the social factors which hold women back all their lives, 90% of P.O. girls are unionised, according to Margaret, And she told us that their militancy is outstanding - the girls who can least afford to strike, the teenagers on £6.50 a week, have persuaded the male night shift ewitch operators, to come out with them.
The public, it seems, contrary to what the papers have said, have been very much in sympathy with the strikers. shop near wren and Faraday House, where there have heen constant pickets, has been giving them free tea, whilst round the corner, they have been able to get their shoes mended at reduced prices. Margaret said that people come up to the pickets in the street with donations for their fund.
The morale of all the strikers was thus very high - not least of the women involved. "We are demanding a E3 increase for all grades," said Margaret Sim, "and the longer they take to make up their minds to give it to us, the more determined we are to get it."
INTERVIEW with Esther Lawlor, a telephonist on strike, on the Faraday Building picket, a week after the strike began:
- Why did you come out on strike?
scale, who take home between £8 and E9 a week for doing exactly the same work as people getting three times as much. I'd like to see an end to the age-based pay scale. Many of these girl: live on their own; when they've paid their 14 or C5 rent they haven't got much left to pay bills, buy food and necessaries. One 19-year-ald who pays 5 gns. a week for a flat couldn't afford on her wage to buy proper meals. She collapsed one day from malnutrition. The girls who are staying in now are the ones who can afford to come out - many of them are even doing overtime instead of supporting the strike. It's the young girls who can least afford it who are out. The seabs are just being selfish and 6 greedy. They'll take the pay increase
[page 7]
if we win, but they won't help us fight for it.
- How important do you think the union I joined the union five years ago because I believe you need a union; you can't get anywhere on your awn. You need the strength of the union behind you. The majority of women here are in the union and many of the menbers who are scabbing have been helped by the union in the past. is they won't listen to us, they just ignore us; they don't want to lose their money now.
But if we lose this strike, a lot of other workers will lose too - the engineers, the railway workers, the busmen, the night cleaners, car vorkers. If the Government stop us, they'll be in a stronger position to stop everyone else.
- Is a clesed shop necessary in your view?
Well, trainees are not allowed to join the union: there are a lot of trainees: they get the same age-based scaled wages as qualified telephonists; and they can keep the switehboards operating if the qualified workers are on strike. They can strike, but they're under terrific pressure not to, because of their position. If we had a closed shop we'd be in a much stronger bargaining position than we are now. would really be feeling the pressure if we were all out.
- Do you think the GPO can give what you demand?
The GPO can well afford to give us the increase. We subsidise a lot of dilferent industries. they are 'cause they've got the books; they've got everything. I'd love to see the books, - How long can you hold out, do you think?
We can hold out as long as Ryland wants to. We aren't demoralised and we aren't put off by the lies of the national press. The money collections from the sympathetie public, from unions, trades councils, left-wing The trouble in.
of us want this. so far?
put what you say.
longer"
The GPO We don't know what groups, have been a real help; without them we probably wouldn't be standing out here now. Mind you, the girls would live on bread and jam as long as they think it's necessary, and as long as they have u roof over their head they 11 stay out. - What are the prospects for the failure or succesa of this strike?
I think this strike could lead to a general strike. If we lose they'll all lose; if we give in, they'll all give If Jackson goes to arbitration, he'll be letting us down, because nor Look what happened to the power workers, and as a result they only got half of hut they claimed. Chappell sold them out.
If you go to arbitration, you've got to accept the judge's ruling. I'd be disappointed if this happened, and I think a lot of people would be.
- Finally, what do you think of the press and radio coverage of the strike They never print the troth, they never The BBC interviewed some of us and asked hor long we could stay out. We said one week longer than Mr. Ilyland. It came over as "one week Members of London SWG Drawing Women Back: Militant Woman, c. 1250
[page 8]
In the last 2 years, the actions and camp-
----- pull-quotes -----
London telephonists two interviews