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raised funds in order to fight for equal pay, and by the middie of the century the union in England was fighting for a single "list" of rates, to apply to both men and women.
Although the TUC first called for equal pay in 1885, it remained a dead-letter until the first world war. Then women entered the labour market in huge numbers, doing jobs previously reserved for men. Munition workers received very low pay. The engincering unions negotiated for skilled workers to receive the usual male rate for the job, but the line between skilled and semi-skilled jobs was ill defined. The employers" federation advised its members to employ women at special woren's and youth's rates.
The Government intervened and an act was passed saying that the usual rates should apply for all work. However, this only applied for piece rates, not time rates, leaving the employers in practise to fix rates as they wished.
The National Federation of Women Workers convened a conference, which called for equal pay for equal work, training, security against unemployment after the war, and for women to join the trade unions. Thousands did, and as a GOMEN RAINSTE PRICE RISE example we publicised the example of workers in Allied • Another case has just emerged at a tactory in North London where workers succeeded in stopping their boss from raising the price of cakes by 30p in the pound The fight for equal pay musr insohe the fight for equalit: of opportunity London's bur-women have long fought for the right to drive buses, as woren in some other towns are already doing. Pictured here is the first London woman bus-driver, Rosemand Viner.
Photo: Morning Star What Now?
The enthusiasm for the campaign arose at a time when the Tory Government had insisted that however useless the Price Commission nothing further would be done to curb price rises, and when so many trade unions had capitulated before Phase 3.
Today, the Labour Government has, to a certain extent, distracted attention from the real situation by 'price subsidies'-even though these subsidies make only a couple of pence difference to the weekly budget and are added on to our taxes anyway. And trade unionists find that where they have negotiated threshold agreements under Phase 3 they are now getting a minimum of protection for themselves and their families. It will therefore be difficult for others to follow the Nottingham experience at the moment.
What is obviously needed is for all trade unionists to have automatic protection against -inflation - in other words a sliding scale of wages, something which would be extended to all state benefits as well. This means that every rise in the cost of living index should be met with an automatic rise in wages and benefits. Metal workers in Belgium for example have already achieved this.
When the Tories introduced threshold agreements under Phase 3, they hoped that these would never be triggered. Now we see a whole series of struggles in which workers are fighting for these payments from their employers, eg. at Whickman's in Coventry and the workers occupying Plesseys in Beeston, near Nottingham. These struggles can lay the basis for a fight for a sliding scale for all workers. And the work already done by groups such as the Nottingham Campaign has created a good foundation for winning trade unionists in the district to this policy.
Jane Brown
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result wage increases for both time and piece work, a shorter working week, and improved conditions were secured Many unions opened up their doors to women for the first time, including the railway workers, the bakers, and the bank workers. Women's membership in unions went up from 400,000 to over a million.
Transport Workers' Strike.
Even though improvements were obtained, many, male workers received a 'war bonus' which negated the principle of equality. On 17 August, 1918, three thousand women who worked on London's buses and trams went on strike demanding the same five shilling bonus that was paid to the men. Although their union, the National Transport Workers Federation, did not support them, most of their male fellow workers did, and the strike spread quickly.
"Conducterettes" in the Black Country threatened to strike, and by 18 August eight provincial towns were hit. The wonen at the Elephant and Castle tube station, who received 12s 6d less than the men, came out and by the third day, more underground workers joined in. Wolverhampton and Blackhurn decided to settle with their workers and gave them the five shillings. The bus strikes ended after six days when an enquiry was set up.
The tube woren, who had the support of the NUR, were very well organised. They held regular meetings, picketed stations, and elected strike committees. They did not go back with the bus workers, and were joined by women from the Great Western Railway. When they returned to work on 27 August, by which time negotiations had been promised. they decided to maintain the local strike conmittees until they secured their demands.
Not only did most of the transport workers win their bonus, but the Government anxious to avoid a confrontation with the munitions workers awarded them a 5s bonus too.
Between the wars.
It was the experience of the first world war which convinced many wonen workers of the importance of equal pay, but the inter-war years were not the best time in which to fight for it. The Government could not guarantee jobs for all the returning heroes, and many women lost their jobs. Although middle-class women continued to work, they were required to leave on marriage.
When the depression hit Britain in 1929, the situation changed. Many working class women became their families' sole support. Because women could be paid less than men, many were able to find work; and with 3 million unemployed the trade unions were hardly in a position to argue that no woman should take a man's place at a lower rate. The years when women workers were neglected and scorned, when the principle of equal pay had become a sick joke, rebounded on the men.
However, the lessons were not learnt. During the second world war, the unions reacted in much the same way as in the first. More unions - notably the engineers- took women into membership for the first time: the sort of agreements as before were negotiated and flouted in the same cynical way.
Women were supposed to receive equal pay for equal work, where they replaced a male worker. But the employer could claim that they required more supervision and it was cheaper to provide a few extra male supervisors that pay all the women more. Men again received a war bonus White Collar Equality After the second world war, there began the same sort of process that had taken place after the first, but this time in circumstances of full employment. One of the most important chagnes was the dropping of the marriage bar in the white-collar sector, banking being the last As jobs in the civil service, the welfare state, and office work generally multiplied, so did the demand for women workers. It was in this field that the first demands for equal pay were renewed, In jobs such as teaching. it was fairly easy to demonstrate that women were doing cqual work. After a long but not very militant struggle, Government non-manual workers received equal pay in seven stages, beginning in 1955. Following this. most white-collar workers won equal pay, with the banks again being the last among the big employers to make the concession. Employment opportunities, of course, have remained strictly limited. and with or without cqual pay. the vast majority of women white-collar workers still tind themselves in the lowest paid job.
Hopes for women had been dashed by the Royal Commission on equal pay, set up in 1944 It had brought up all the old hoary arguments against equal pay: women were generally supported by men; they did equal work only scidomly, and if they did then it was elmost impossible to prove. But it also pointed out the costs to the country" of awarding equal pay. It was this last point which doubtless weighed most heavily.
The large turn-out, far exceeding the expectations of the org
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Suppliers of Glagow who took industrial action against the hoarding of lentils the hoarding had almost tripled in price.)