Made in Dagenham in 1968
Following the review of the hit film, Made in
Dagenham, in the last edition of Socialism Today, we reprint an article
(slightly edited for space) written at the time of the Dagenham strike
by Clare Doyle (née Paget), from the July 1968 issue of The Militant
(No.39).
"WHAT HAVE they [Ford] got to lose? 187 at 5d an
hour? That’s a pittance, they could get us back tomorrow. And them
making millions. This is their boom year". This comment, from one of the
women car-seat cover machinists on strike at Ford’s Dagenham factory,
points to the real significance of their struggle.
Forced to lay off thousands of workers and lose
£1.25 million a day (a small enough percentage of its massive
super-profits nevertheless) while the strike lasts, Ford – Britain’s
leading exporter – sees not only its precious system of plant bargaining
threatened but also its ability to exploit its female workers and
undercut the men’s rates of pay…
The women there start their arduous work (many men
wouldn’t do it) at 7.30am with nothing but a ten-minute break in the
morning and three quarters of an hour for lunch, before they finish work
at 4.15pm. Labouring at heavy machines, scarred through handling
unwieldy materials, they are expected to turn out 55 seat cushions an
hour, 240 bucket seats or 250 head-linings a day.
If the Ford women win on this regrading issue, the
movement will not stop at that. In their fight against ‘sex
discrimination’ they have widespread support from their own union, the
National Union of Vehicle Builders – "As far as we are concerned we have
no second-class members" – the men at their factory, the 195 women at
the Halewood factory who have come out in sympathy, the AEU [engineers’
union] and the Bakers’ Union at their conferences, union branches in
other sections of industry, trades councils, Labour parties, Young
Socialists and individuals prepared to send donations to their strike
fund.
With their new-found strength the Ford women will no
longer be afraid to complain about their conditions – fear of
victimisation had compelled them to stay at their work in the rain with
their macs on. They have already shown their determination to achieve
their demand by refusing to accept a ‘fact-finding’ committee, and
agreeing not to meet to discuss the strike for another week: "Court of
inquiry or not, we are, not going back until we get the money". (Morning
Star, 22 June 1968)…
Taking home £12-13 a week [equivalent to £136
today], the Ford women are ‘well off’ compared with most women workers.
More than half the nine million women workers earn less than five
shillings [25p or the equivalent of £3.25] an hour and less than
one in 30 receives as much as ten shillings. According to the Survey of
Women’s Employment, of those doing skilled manual work, nearly two
thirds earned less than five shillings an hour and only one in 90 got
ten shillings. Two fifths of those paid weekly had earned less than £6
gross in the previous week to the survey…
The Ford machinists are simply demanding a
recognition of their skill. The lowest-paid unskilled man at the Ford
works has a higher hourly rate of pay than the women…
Although girls had as good a performance at O-level
standards as boys when they left school, only 7% entered apprenticeships
(predominantly hairdressing) compared with 43% of boys. Only 29% of
female manual workers in industry were classified as skilled, compared
with 49% of male manual workers. Yet during the last war, women were
trained without difficulty to do many types of traditionally male work…
The fact that women make up one third of the labour
force with over half working five days a week and that the number of
women working has increased by 1.6 million since 1950 are simply
not reflected in an increase in opportunities in most areas of
employment. Only about one woman in 20 is employed in a managerial
capacity – in some industries only one in 100!…
After half a century of votes for women, fewer than
one million of them have even achieved equality of pay for equal work.
Women are still regarded as second-class citizens educated for a
domestic role and legally subject to their husbands on many matters.
Even trade union officials bargaining on wage agreements accept smaller
percentage increases for their women workers. In view of their position
in society and at work, it is not surprising that many female workers
are not members of trade unions. But, as Dr Summerskill says: "Up to now
women have passively accepted their exploitation. This strike could
spark off serious industrial unrest which cannot be ignored. Working
women can make or break the economy. The down-trodden women of today are
the strikers of tomorrow".
There have been signs of gathering impatience at
union conferences at the [Labour] government’s refusal to carry out its
pledge on equal pay. If the employers say they cannot afford it they
must open their books to prove it. Ford has £100 million in reserve out
of which last year it paid £6 million in dividends to shareholders, yet
it refuses to pay a living wage to an extra-exploited section of its
workers.
If a modern and advanced industry like this cannot
even guarantee the most elementary standards, while it remains in
private hands, then it should be handed over to the working population.
The demands by delegates of the NUVB conference for the nationalisation
of the car-manufacturing industry should be completely supported, and
extended to the many other industries which refuse to pay workers a
living wage.
This inevitably links the women’s struggle to that
of the apprentices and young workers and all those who are forced to
accept the role of cheap labour which, in a period of rising
unemployment, threatens the security and living standards of the
higher-paid workers too. That is why the whole of the labour movement
must take up the women’s fight as their own and why women must take
their demands to the unions and to the Labour Party branches. First
white-collar unions and now women: the ranks of the working-class
militants are growing from day to day – the profiteers must be shaking
in their shoes!
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