A campaign for parity is building up amongst Ford workers. This is partly because of the set up in the car industry, rates vary considerably from place to place, and workers in the Midlands tend to get more than people in the rest of the country. But the demand also comes out of the last dispute. It emerged as an issue towards the end of the last strike and has been simmering ever since. The nature of the last agreement opened up the way too for further action. The fact that it was a compromise is undeniable and has been much commented upon. The real argument is whether it was the best that could have been got at the time. However, it certainly left people with the feeling that it must be improved upon. What has been noticed less, but which is as - i not more - important, is the solidarity and feeling of unity with which people returned to work. As one Dagenham steward put it, "They went back together and they went back confident. They felt they'd actually done something. They'd discovered it was possible to exist and survive on strike. The timid people with families who had never been out before were not afraid any more." This confidence didn't just dissolve because people were back at work, it found expression in innumerable small confrontations. There were arguments, supervisors tried to take people do down a pee or two. bitterness towards the scab scabs, several short stoppages occurred which were hushed up by the management. There was a new feeling about. People weren't standing for things anymore. This militancy and sense of power was reflected in day to day negotiating. One of its most significant consequences is the rank and file representatives on the National Joint Negotiating Committee which means better communication between the shop floor and union negotiators.
DISPARITY
ne can or only was Durata meenage the N. J.N.C. on 5 September. Parity is esser tially a question of comparability. Ford workers are not saying that wage rates between all the tiny component parts firms should be made the same. They are concerned with rates in the large combines like Fords, Rootes, etc. One example of the difference in wages is the pay acket of a production workers at Rootes anc 'ords. A day shift production worker at Rootes now gets a guaranteed £34.16.8. for a 0-hour week, at Fords the equivalent worke ets only £21.1.8. even after the four-year-se vice increment is included. Similarly the Coventry tool-room worker was getting 14/10½d an hour last year, while the same man at Fords got only 10/9½d. This is a reversal of the situation in the thirties when Ford workers were n the lead. At a large meeting of shop steward: rom the car industry on 19 October in Coven. try, the case was put vehemently. Speaker after peaker in the morning described rates at Britsh Leylands, Rootes and Vauxhall in the Midlands. all of which were better than Fords. As the figures rolled out the meeting became more resolute.
WOMEN
Though figures were the essential point at issue in the discussion of parity and the future campaign, inevitably many other questions arose. Most prominent was equal pay. A man from the floor raised it, insisting that the men should stand by the women. From the platform Moss Evans told the meeting that the company's attempt at Fords to use the blue book to enforce shift work at nights had been rejected last year. The union would not accept that the company had the right to make women do this as a condition of equal pay. "We vant equal pay as a right, he said, speaking to his union. A shop steward from Roots made the same point: "It's all a lot of tommy-rot women have to do nights or have to do this and that. What could industry do without them he'd like to know? (Cheers.) Rights apart, speakers were agreed too there was always the dange Thaniess women were on me same rates as men, they would be used to undercut the men. The way in which women's jobs are defined was also mentioned. A member of the shop stewards committee of British Leyland's Preston plant said women weren't classed as spectors, they were called viewers, and gc To a week, aman on coolest earse kers and got £23 a week. are viewers." These disparities in the situation of women workers in industry relate closely to the new agitation. Equal pay, job definition, and the nature of specific protections which have to be fought for, given the existing position of women in the home, like the banning of night work, come up very quickly in any discussion about equal rates tor women. Something less tangible appeared at the meeting itself. which is more difficult to measure. A women there. The management went round in the last strike telling people if they didn't come out they'd get a £25 bonus. The meeting sym pathised. One man said they should go down and help her. But her feeling of isolation was apparent. Not just in her job, but in her situation as a militant. The whole meeting was strongly and overwhelmingly masculine despite the presence of a few women, and the men defined the atmosphere. Though one man who got rather carried away corrected himself and a sentence which began as "a load of old bol... ended as "sorry, ladies".
EXPLOITATION
Parity raised the question not just of equality between workers but of a more fundamental concept of parity. The old con about making more cake before you can divide it was well and truly exploded. "We believe that the Ford worker is definitely being exploited by the Ford motor company," declared Moss Evans. By the "hear hear"'s it was clear that the meeting was of the same opinion. Convenor Peter Nicholas told a story about Lord Stokes getting knighted. The Queen put her sword on his shoulder. "Arise, Sir Donald," she said. He never moved. "Couldn't you put it differently, your highness?" asked the new lord. As Nicho"It's the only job I could Jones or Hugh Scanlon had haloes round their heads. Nobody tried to build them up. But you had to recognise the difference between trade union officials who would support you and ones who wouldn't. But in a campaign like this you couldn't afford to ignore the contrast between a Scanlon, a Jones and a Carron. Les Moor, Halewood convener, reminded them that it wasn't officials, or conveners, or shopstewards ultimately who could decide a campaign, it was the workers. It was their job to get back to the shop floor and convince people.
RESOLUTION
It was decided to go for a £10 a week all-round increase for every Ford worker NEXT ROUND This November shop stewards are busy discussing the issues in the Fords plants. A large meeting is planned this month in Dagenham to put the case. If the company rejects the demand, action will probably be taken some time in the spring. As Jack Mitchell put it they'd had Round 1, this was Round 2. "It isn' going to be a 15-round contest. There's going to be a knock-out in the second round." Sheila Rowbotham get" committee was set up to co-ordinate the London colleges in their efforts. Most of the students who sympathised had no idea of any concrete actions that were possible. The situation posed questions which the action committees proved, unable to answer.
The reason why no answer was forthcoming could be seen in part in what happened on the demonstration outside Senate House. There so long that most of the liberal elements drifted away. The hard core was unwilling to adhere to SOAS but were also unable to argue out any alternative. After a long discussion, the demonstrators walked unopposed into the forecourt, and after more lengthy deliberations, half-hearted, un-thought-out and reluctant attempts were made to walk in. At no time was there a concentrated attempt to enter the building; yet there was a reluctance to recognise that few wanted to undertake any such action.
In the meetings of the action committee that followed, a number of tendencies emerged. One group from the LSE came to the reluctant decision that an action was necessary to persuade the Lords of Senate House that Gestapo-type actions in the face of protest would not suc