On the day the Imperial Typewriters strikers were returning to work, 30 Asian women at Kenilworth Components in Leicester went on strike.
The women went on strike after being sacked for asking for a wage rise and joined the TGWU. Kenilworth is one of the factories in the Midlands area which employs Asian workers, especially women in bad conditions and with low pay.
The conditions in the factory and the wages of the workers seem like something out of the nineteenth century. The women receive £12 for 40 hours work. The 20 men in the factory work a compulsory 60 hour week in five 12 hour shifts for just over £30.
Nominally the workers are given a £4 monthly bonus, but it can be and is withdrawn if a worker arrives late for work anytime during a particular month. There is no time and a half for Saturday work and no canteen or medical facilities. This horrendous list goes on and on.
FIGHT
As at Imperial Typewriters the women decided to fight.
They took this decision although they knew that the company in the past had sacked individuals, groups of workers, and even the entire workforce for asking for a wage increase.
The high turnover rate has meant that there has been no union organisation.
Despite these difficulties the women won a victory, in which the Imperial Typewriter strike obviously helped. The Leicester TGWU, embarrassed by the Imperial strike, stepped in immediately at Kenilworth. A return to work was negotiated last Tuesday. However, when they went back, eleven of them, including two of their spokeswomen, were sacked.
The other women then walked out and the TGWU made the strike official. It took thirteen weeks of struggle to move the union at Imperial Typewriters while at Kenilworth Components, the strike was made official in two days.
The help of the Imperial Typewriter strikers was very decisive in what happened at Kenilworth Components. The thirty Asian women were invited to a mass meeting of the Imperial strikers and as a result, twenty pickets were sent to the factory. The committee set up by some of the Asian women at Imperial also met the women strikers to discuss mutual problems and the best way to help the strike.
The TGWU and the management were faced with another strike by Asian workers and obviously were frightened of having another 'Imperial' on their hands. Negotiations began between management, union and Department of Employment, with Bromley, the TGWU official of Imperial Typewriter fame heading the union side.
A settlement was reached very quickly. The eleven sacked workers were reinstated. It was agreed that there would be no victimisation or redundancies. An increase in pay for each worker of £5.30 a week was agreed plus a £2.25 threshold payment. All the workers in the factory have now joined the TGWU.
In eight weeks time new negotiations for all the workforce will begin again.
The strike at Imperial Typewriters has shown how the militancy and determination of black workers can force the trade union movement to act. It has also given a lead to other black workers in the way to fight against their particular exploitation as a source of cheap labour.
EXAMPLE
They have set an example to white workers how to organise a strike directly involving the mass of the workers. This is an effective way of ensuring that the union bureaucrats are unable to sell out disputes.
All the workers will benefit from the action taken by these Asian women at Kenilworth and this means it will be much easier to unify the workforce—black and white, women and men.