[page 19]
The Sheffield Trades Council Conference on the Charter held on 26 October followed hard on the heels of the defeat of the SEI women's equal pay strike in Manchester. Women at the conference, who had been involved in raising support for the women at SEI, argued forcefully the Charter campaign in Sheffield should learn the lessons at SEI, prepare the fight on equal pay in Sheffield, and centralise support for any ensuing strug gle.
Sylvia Greenwood, chairperson of the shop stewards committee at a large engineering firm and a member of the Transport and General Workers Union Equal Pay Committee, summed this point up: Equal pay and equal opportunity are not going to be achieved by looking at this piece of paper (the Charter)' she said 'So many times we've passed resolutions only to have left them gathering dust. We want to use the Charter, so that when there is an equal pay strike, we can mobilise support and help the women win it.
Although most of the speakers at the conference stressed that ex-