women's wages 8, the craft rate rose 36%%, while the lowest rate, the unions failed to use the collective bargain- ing process to challenge the manifold dis- criminatory practices which operate against women are paid on average 28% less than men. were 72% of the skilled male rate and 8% below the unskilled maic rate. The EPA forced employers to begin to level up womens" rates. But before very long this began to slip, In 1976- which needless to say is women's rate, rose by only 28%. As a result, the old differentials were In the Post Office, where delivery munds are allocated on the basis of seniority, the Page 9 collective bargaining 44% of the working population. Collective bargaining has been, and still is, a cornerstone of trade union policy. It is correctly seen as a way that work- power against the bosses. During the through the early and mid seventies, col. lective bargaining was central to win- ning wage increases and better condi- tions, especially in the manufacturing applied more to some sections of the workforce average trade union militant gave much thought ing people can exert their strength and bigh tide of militancy that swept However, most of the benefits that were won than to others. In general, women missed out. Neither the union bureaucracies, nor the to what they could wring from employers that SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 14 Aprll 1989 Who is in charge? In the workplace some are more equal than others John Harris/FL.
ing them to become active becomes membership of many unions has taken a dive. As more and more women enter the workforce, recruit- vital. Some unions have helatedly begun to adopt progressive policies towards women as a result of this But the bureaucracy hopes:to solve the problems of women workers by negotiation and beller legislation; seeing their role as mediators between workers and the employers and state. As sex dis- crimination boosts profits and ing them into unions and encourag- divides the workforce, thus weaken pressure. BEFOGNTE MEANAS TURES RECOGNITTON NOW WANT WE FE A Time and again, job evaluation is workers had been on temporary con this time, thus limiting their access loaded against women workers, as a authority manual workers shows. ditional payments much more com- employers have persisted with dis- criminatory practices to dodge the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA). Until the SDA, women postal tracts. Once the law changed, they became permanent, but their senicinity was only calculated from 1985 survey of London local Job segregation was maded, and ad- to better rounds.
which culminated in strike action at Fords, Only organised struggie can win women their rights at work and lead agreements and improved legisla- the agenda for the bureaucrats who staff the unions, They have no stomach for challenging the Tories, and their patronising attitude to their fidence they can organise tbemselves. But, over the years, women have shown remarkable tenacity fighting for their rights: in the Miners" strike, in defence of the NHS, on the picket line at Grunwick's and in the 15-ycar long sriggle ing trade unionism, neither employers nor the Tories have much enthusiasm about challenging it. to non-discriminatory collective Struggle, however, is not high on women members means they have no con- ton. Women at Fords won equal pay through strike action, not This "ideal" is personified in a Bridgewater thousand women work there, on four shifts, as casual part-time labour. The work is low paid and repetitive, with little regard for health and safety...The small number of full time factory In my factory, working class experience and exploitation under canning facory, described by Glen Burrows in the Solidarity Network magazine. She writes A capitalism, far from disappearing, is being capitalism, far from workers are all male. children. One survey shows, that in legislation families with children under 4, 46% of women. workforce, 69% of these working mothers terruption of her working life places a woman at a real disadvatage. She loses out on seniority. in many cases she returns to a lower graded joh as against 3.6% of men, were not in the worked less than 30 hours per week, but 78% than before, her promotion prospects are damaged and often she encounters age har of the fathers worked 40 hours ot more. This in more than 80% of the workforce was Carlos male, While full time home helps mon in male" jobs - ie those where and care assistants might get E3-R ters were getting an additional pay- It is inevitably women who bear the burden of responsiblity for above the haric rate, ventilation fit- ment of £113.
officers in the unions, we must he aware that, unless we build at strong movement at the base, The main initiative will come from women committees. A network of such bodies in all the when the women machinists won their equal If the union bureaucracics had shown the same resolutences and determination as women workers over the years, we would certainly have had the EPA on the starute book before 1970-82 years after the policy was adopted by the TUC! So whilst we must continuously put pressure on the union leadership, demanding that they take up women's rights at work, and insisting that mote women are made full time workers themselves. We need to fight to es- tablish women's caucuses in the workplaces, union branches and on district councils and very little will be achiéved. pay claim. Tories have attacked these by treating them as if they were a perk" - taxing them higher than of children under four, This has encourages the growth of a large unregistered child-minding industry, where women are paid even less than workforce increases, so does the need for child government is trying to shift the responsiblity in this field from the public sector places under the management of local authorities have declined from 63,000 to 28,000 and Tory policies mean that further cuts are on Even on the rare occasions where workplace nurseries have been set up, the company cars. Nursery provision in both public and private sector is available for less than 2% women entering the back onto the individual. Since 1945 nursery the mothers of those they care for. recreated and intensified'. As the number of qualify for materity leave. Employers have a Agrooments based on last in, first out* if redun- dancies occur, particularly discriminate against women who have had an interrupted working Women make up the majority of part-time Discrimination against part-timers is rife, and re inforced by legislation. In jobs like retailing. weekends ces such work carries for full-time staff. Lf they work Jeen than 16 hours, they are not covered by employment legislation and therefore can he sacked at any time without recourse, do not vested interest in making sure workers are on Limitations when she re-enters the workforce. workers, In 1987, 4.2 million women were employed part time and the number is growing. and evenings - but rarely get the extra allowan pat-timers work unsocial hours less than 16 hours.
Janet Knight unions is desperately needed with regular con- ferences where women trade unionistscan meet and discuss how to campaign for equality at Of course women cannot win the struggle alone. Wehave to win allics amongst male trade unionists. This mcans having out the argument that sex discrimination may benefit men in the immediate sense but that its long tems effects will be disastrous for the organised inhour movement. To recognise that women have spe- cial rights and special needs, and to incorporato these into the unions" programmes. is not divis ve as some, even on the hard left, claim. In fact it is the only way to unify all the SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 14 Apri 1989 work. Issues facing working women such as equal pay, non-discriminatory job evaluation, equal count of childcare, full rights for part-timers and the extension of state and workplace nurseries are, or should he, the concer of the whole trade However, while the employers and the Tories have a coherent stralegy for women workers, the trade union bureaucracies have either ignored women's needs or considered them of secondary importance. Unfortunately, many militant male trade unionists share this blinkered attitude and have rarcly taken up the dustry and the spread of unemployment, the seniority and training opportunities that take ac- With the drastic decline of manufacturing in fight aginst discriminatory practices, The influx of women into the workforce is years, a shortage of school leavets means that two thirds of the entrants to white collar jobs: will be female. This exacly squares with the popular belief does not want to drive women paid, unprotected, non-unionised labour force. and see women as a vital component of this. The govemment's announcement that protective legislation for women and young people is to be ended is not intended to open up more jobs for women in hitherto "male preserves" but to maximise employers profits at the expense of women will soon pass 50%, In the next ten plans of Thatcherism, which contrary to back into the home, Rather they want an ill- guarenteed to continue and today' stotal of 44% health and safety. Page 10
TU Soviet new thinking FEA on South Africa
issued by Tass, the govemment press agency. means. Any solution through military means South Africa should not he destroyed. Institute in Moscow, Gromyko has heen Soviet support for the armed struggle in Soviet thinking on the question of South Africa has also evolved. Following Oliver Tambo's March visit to Moscow, a statement called for a tightening of sanctions against South Africa and reaffirmed its support for the try will continue its supply of military aid to But at a press conference where Oliver Tambo called for an intensification of the armed struggle, he was directly contradicted by Yuri Yukalov, the head of the Soviet Foreign Ministry's South Africa department, who said; *We would prefer a political selllement and want apartheid to be dealt with by political will be short-lived, We do not want to em- There are other means such as trade and economic sanctions. These are very useful tools. It doesn't mean that the South African regime should be talked to using the language of threats and by banging This statement was backed up by Anatoly Gromyko, the head of the Africa participating in talks between Soviet and South African representatives in London, chaired by Sir John Killick, a former "There would have to be a programme of reforms submitted to nationwide dis- cussion at which all soctions of society would he represented. This will mean sit- ting down at negotiations for two, three or The day before, in a rather more cyni- cal vein, official Sovict Forcign minister, Gennady Gerasimov, was asked about South Africa. 'What armed struggle?", he ANC. Less publicly, the Soviet defence minis- phasize the need to enlarge the armed struggle. Page 11 Soviet thinking on Southern British envoy to Moscow. Africa one's fist on the table. however many years. ukhonto we Sizwe. COSATU: a force to be reckoned with National Union of Namibian Workers and its pendence of the unions. In Zimbabwe, one of However they have started to develop strong independent worker organisation through the The basis for workers" control of the economy olies can be developed from these beginnings. the first casualties of of the Mugabe govem- But in turn the possibility of a progressive development within Namibia rests centrally on ment Soviet diplomacy endorsed both the reduction of the UN peace-keeping force, a tinks with COSATU unions in South Africa. and a drive for the expropriation of the monop- But this is dependent on the continued inde- ment was the unions and government suppres The role of the Soviet Union in the develop- directly involved in the Angola-Namibia agree- move bitterly fought by SWAPO. Botha deposed, but little will change removal of ANC bases from Angola. ments has now become crucial. regional developments as a whole. sion of workers' activity. Namibian working class are not yet in a situation to ex- colonialism is that ministrators, tech- nicians, and skilled One of the heritages of workers vital to the the multinationals. propriate and expel they lack the ad- success of a post inde- pendence economy: