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Two hundred and sixty women in the Lucas factory in Burnley who left the General and Municipal Workers Union to form their own union have now joined the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers. They have disbanded their Women's Industrial Union in a conscious move to put the pressure back where it belongs, inside the trade union movement. In so doing the women, led by Mrs. Pat Sturdy, hope to benefit from the experience of having had their own organisation by spreading their ideas and demands (contained in their Manifesto, some of which is printed below) inside the trade union movement as a whole. At a time when the question of what role the unions should play is posed so sharply, the willingness of the left to support moves of this kind which go beyond and in some ways contradict the traditional trade union framework may well be crucial for the success of the struggle as a whole.
Mrs. Sturdy, who is now speaking to other groups of women workers about the Manifesto, stresses the importance of rank and file activity in fighting for such demands, and the need to place them within a wider political context. "We need a change of political system of Parliament, anyone, no matter who it was, would end up as a Wilson or a Heath, for all their ideals: the Parliamentary system would change them." She is confident that the struggle of women workers in the trade unions will have an important part to play in bringing about this change.
MANIFESTO The Women's Industrial Union has made its protest about women not having enough say in the Trade Unions. Now we are determined to fight inside the Unions for the right to work; for a decent living wage;-to show working people how they are exploited by the employers.
The government has given the employers a weapon, the Industrial Relations Act, which rank-and-file Trade Unionists are now resisting. It is becoming clearer and clearer that its these people who must run the Unions and lead the attack against the employing class.
Women have for a long time not been fully active in the Trade Union movement because they have most responsibility for running their homes and looking after their children. This is why they are the most exploited and poorly paid workers. We must organise ourselves to struggle in the Unions for our rights. All Trade Unionists must support our demands since they are in the interests of all workers. We women need to take a more active part in our Unions and in politics generally. Our campaign centres around the following issues:1) For equal pay and against low pay -for a decent wage for our labour agreed to by the local AUEW official (also in the Communist Party), Indeed, he had been most concerned about where Pat was going to stay, how she was getting there, etc..... until two days before the meeting was due to take place. Then the Socialist Woman group checked the booking, and found that for some unexplained reason his attitude had changed and the meeting could no longer be held in the AUEW rooms.
Asked afterwards by Pat Sturdy herself why the meeting could not be held in the AUEW rooms, the AUEW official said that he did not know the reason for this decision, and intimated that the responsibility for the cancellation of the meeting lay higher up.
Fortunately, however, the meeting was able to go ahead in the Sheffield students union with a good attendance of about 50 people. One of'the most important discussions centred on a local dispute in which women trade unionists who wanted to change from the G&MWU to the T&GWU (because of inadequate representation by the former) were sacked through a deal involving collaboration between management and a G&M official. The meeting elected an ad hoc committee to deal with the dispute, which had resulted in over 30 sackings. The local AUEW official asserts that the C.P. has always supported the right of all those on the left to express their views in public, but the events surrounding this meeting would tend to suggest otherwise. We would like to know, for instance, whether or not the fact that women from this dispute were attending the meeting had anything to do with the sudden non-availability of official union rooms. Also, although we know she was unable to attend in person, we would be interested to know if Vi Gill, leading woman C.P. member in Sheffield, gave her full support to the meeting. In any case, we feel that the Sheffield Communist Party, especially because of its influence in the AUEW, has some explaining to do in this matter.
Nina Thomas 2) Against any kind of job evaluation scheme -for these only divide the workers more to the advantage of the employer 3) For equal opportunity for women —no discrimination in training opportunities and for more opportunities for women as well as men 4) Against all redundancies -for the right to work of all workers 5) For nurseries controlled and financed by local to free women to participate more in their Unions and stop being pushed around.
We want organise industrial groups of women to fight within our Unions, to put pressure on the Trade Union officials for our demands. We need to form a network of groups and factory committees around the country and to get a bulletin going for exchange of ideas and experiences.
If you are interested contact -Mrs. Pat Sturdy, 31 Hogarth Avenue, Burnley, Lanes. telephone: Burnley 31783 If you are in touch with other women workers she would be happy to come and talk to you,