FIGHT NOW way only so long as the attitude exists that women do not really have the right to a job.
LEARNING LESSONS growing they were sold out by the PRESSURE Most women workers bear heavy family responsibilities, and are often hampered in their efforts to organise Employers are, of course, aware of his, and make use of the tactic of divide and rule. For example, empl oyers have played on women work ens" fears to undercut the struggles of the men, or have gor the men's backing for redundancies by offering to sack women, The working class can be attacked and weakened in this Trade unionists at Hoover Molon in Perivale, West London, are well on the way to learning this lesson. Understanding the importance of uniting the workforce, they have been fighting for equal pay for some years, and are on the brink of achieving it, along with the abolition of women's crades.
Currently at Hoovers 150 skilled cool makers are in a furious dispute with the management, The employers have used this as a pretext to lock out the entire produchion workforce of 2000 workers —half of which are women. The bosses are attempting to use the women to turn the worktorce This was true to some extent. But it has to he remembered that women's problems are rarely taken up by the official trade union machInery. I women often fail to get involved in the trade union movement it is not because they do not want a better deal, but because of family responsibilities and the brain-washing women are subjected to almost from birth. They do not have the time, and are rarely encouraged to lake on union posts, or even to attend branch meetings, which are frequently held at times when the family responsibilities of women hit the hardest.
No efforts were made by the unlous in the dispute at Hoover's Cambuslang to explain the issues involved to the woinen, lo integrate them into the decision making of the strike committre, or to help our with childminding so that more women would participate in the actual struggle.
The different stand raken by the women at these two factories has had an important effect on the unity of the workforce and their ability to resist the bosses. This contrast is a dear warning to the trade union movement of the price it will pay if it continues to leave women workers to struggle alone against the myriad of problems they face. The struggle at Salford Electrical Instruments-women workers occu pying part of the factory get their coffee through a hospipe from supporters outsidel Story by
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