‘Our equal pay strike is over. We went back to work on Monday having won a complete victory.’: Monica Harvey, on strike for equal pay at Trico-Folberth car components factory for 21 weeks.
After 21 weeks on strike the 400 women workers at the factory won a significant victory for themselves, for all women fighting for equal rights and for the working class.
The women proved that the legislation introduced by the Government is not only inadequate, in the number of loopholes it offers employers in terms of re-grading structures and job evaluation schemes, but a complete mockery, in that an Industrial Tribunal set up to implement the legislation could find that Trico women doing exactly the same job as 12 men were not entitled to equal pay. By boycotting the tribunal Trico women set an important precedent in proving that reformist legislation alone cannot bring real equal pay and that the strength united industrial action provides is the only way working class women can win equal pay struggles. In the words of AUEW District Secretary Roger Butler ‘Our decision to boycott the Industrial Tribunal when the company took the case to it has been fully vindicated’.
The terms of the Company’s surrender means that the main demand of the strikers, a common operational rate for payment by results throughout the factory has been met, resulting in increases totalling £8.70, more than the original claim for equal pay. There will be no victimisation, full continuity of employment with Trico making up the lost benefits – insurance stamps, pension funds and holiday pay and the agreement would be operative immediately the strikers went back to work.
But the workers at Trico still face the problem of the AUEW men who refused to support the women. These men scabbed on the strike continuously until the management was finally forced to lay them off and then held rival meetings to try and break the strike. These same men are now harassing the women who were on strike, inside the factory. The union at shop-floor level must seek to win these men over and persuade them that their behavious can only succeed in bringing down the union in the factory and thereby defeat the workforce. The union must also be seeking to win parity for workers at the Trico factory in Northampton, who are paid £11 below the rate at the Brentford factory, and who are only now beginning to organise within the AUEW through the example of the strike at Brentford.
Strings attached to victory
But the employers surrender is only partial. The strikers will not receive negotiated back-pay for the strike period and many of the shop-floor agreements, won by hard negotiation by the Union may have been undermined through the reorganisation of the shops by the management. It will therefore be of vital importance that the Union is built up in the factory and the high level of solidarity shown by the women in keeping up the strike for 21 hard weeks is not allowed to fall. At the mass meeting where the terms of the surrender were given, Eileen Ward, a leading shop steward who played an important role in the strike, spelt out what they must do when they got back to work: Fight for a closed shop, hold mass meetings in the factory every month regardless of whether there is any dispute, the production of a factory bulletin, a 10p levy on all members to donate to other industrial disputes, beginning immediately with the strike at Grunwick Film Processing laboratory in North West London, on strike for union recognition. She went on to urge all the strikers to attend the regular fortnightly union meetings.
The women at Trico must themselves now take positions as shop stewards in the union. The men must be encouraged to support the women in their particular problems as women workers and to allow them positions on the union committees. Although the consciousness of many women increased during the strike this did not happen evenly because of the bureaucratic control the District Committee held over the strike. All the women in the factory must be encouraged to take an active part in the union and to meet together to discuss their problems and needs as women workers and members of the trade union in order to win support for their struggles and demands. By organising a Charter group within the factory these struggles and demands can be linked up with the demands of women workers in general. The union must take into account the particular problems women face, family commitments etc and make provision for these by holding meetings in work time and when this is not possible to provide creche facilities. The union must also look to the particular problems the Asian and black women face. They have never been integrated into the work force and their particular problems must be solved as a matter of urgency.
The struggle at Trico was won because the management were pressurised by the car industry to concede. The strike could and should have been won weeks earlier if the blacking on all wipers to the car industry had been effective. It was not, because the Communist Party dominated – AUEW District Committee did not demand that the AUEW Executive issue a call for blacking of all wipers. The District Committee justified this by saying that the AUEW Executive was against the strike and might sell it out if given the opportunity. In fact the District Committee did not want to bring the car industry to a standstill – they were not prepared for a showdown with the Labour Government.
The District Committee kept up an effective stranglehold on the militancy of the strike committee and the women themselves. The Strike committee could make no decisions without the approval of the District Committee and the women were not able to speak at mass meetings. Furthermore the District Committee did not call for a national levy of all AUEW members, despite the strike being made official after the first few weeks and despite the women suffering severe financial hardship. Any initiatives proposed by other organisations were immediately rejected by the District Committee without any consultation with the strikers and sometimes without it being discussed adequately by the strike committee.
The Working Women’s Charter Campaign (WWCC) supported the strike actively throughout the whole 21 weeks through organising public meetings, speaking tours for Trico speakers in key areas such as Birmingham, helping on the picket lines, making financial contributions and fighting to gain the support of the labour and women’s movements for the strike. But an indication of the attitude of the District Committee to the Campaign is given when they asked the Campaign to organise a creche for the women. This was clearly the responsibility of the union and on being told this, the District Committee said the money would have to come from the hardship allowance for the women. Naturally the creche did not get off the ground.
When the WWCC proposed that a Support Committee should be set up in order to draw in the maximum support of the labour movement to force through effective blacking and stoppages of the car factories, the District Committee rejected the idea. But a couple of weeks later when the Greater London Association of Trades Councils suggested the idea, the District Committee enthusiastically welcomed it. This was because it was clear from the outset that the GLATC Support Committee would do nothing. In practice the Committee discussed effective blacking of Trico products in every locality, a mass picket and day of action – but that’s where it remained – a discussion. Inspite of strong pressure from the WWCC and towards the end of the strike, the strike committee itself, the day of action never took place. The call by the WWCC for a national demonstration, called with aim of regaining the solidarity of the labour movement, was at first severely criticised by the District Committee and then, under pressure from the Strike Committee, the District Committee decided to call a demonstration themselves after the strike had already been effectively won.
The Communist Party’s reluctance to antagonise the car industry and the Government is illustrated by the situation at the British Leyland plant at Longbridge, where the CP dominate the works committee. For a long time after the AUEW proudly proclaimed all Trico blades were blacked, wipers arrived and continued to be fitted at the Longbridge. Then it was Trico Germany and Trico USA blades that arrived and were fitted. The CP said that they would wait until after the tribunal to black Trico blades. But when the Tribunal found against the strikers they still did not black.
The strike could have been won much earlier if it had not been for the manoeuvres of the Communist Party. Their strategy of alliances with so-called ‘lefts’ and progressives in the trade union bureaucracy tied them to the policies of the AUEW leadership. The industrial strength of the CP, particularly in the car industry, could have secured an early victory for the strikers. Instead the CP subordinated the Trico Strikers to the collaborationist schemes of the AUEW leadership.
The IS had no clear plan of action for the dispute. They performed collection and servicing duties – but had no clear policy as to how the dispute could be won. At one point they even called for a strike of women workers in the engineering industry to back the Trico workers!
The significance of the win at Trico is that the women won equal pay despite having the Industrial Tribunal find against them. This effectively pushed the strike outside the law. At the same time as winning equal pay the workers at Trico have broken the Social Contract. No doubt the Trico employers and the Labour Government will try to prevent a further wage increase for the workforce. They will argue that “legally” the workers are not entitled to a rise. The employers will no doubt argue to the male workers that ‘the women’ have taken all the money the company can afford. Trico workers must organise to open the books and accounts of the company to nail such lies. They will have to prepare a united fight against wage controls if the company are not to have their way.
Victory also points the finger directly at the the legislation and the Industrial Tribunals. By boycotting the tribunals they proved that struggles in the working class can be won through determined strike action. IS have used the Trico case as a reason to boycott tribunals altogether:
“Every future tribunal will now have the example of this strike before it. The message is simple. Ignore the Tribunals. It is easy to stop the Equal Pay Act working not to help anyone get equal pay. The only way to be certain of winning is by strong and determined industrial action”.
Why the Acts were brought into being
This position does not take into account the fact that the introduction of the legislation has raised the expectations of women and implies that without the Tribunals the Equal Pay act would bring equal pay. Quite clearly this is not the case. The Equal Pay Act and the Sex Discrimination Act are the products partly of the increasing pressure from women as they have become more militant and active within trade unions, and the fact that the Government has had to fall in line with the rest of the EEC as regards equal opportunities for women.
The legislation itself is full of loopholes for the employers to exploit but there is the danger that they may sow illusions in the working class that legislation can abolish women’s oppression altogether. But the Acts do not give women what the Government’s view is enough to avoid an explosion of women’s struggles. Similarly the Tribunals exist to prevent women getting equal pay. Ninety-nine per cent of all cases taken to Tribunals are lost. The Tribunals are an attempt to dilute the militancy of women through a reliance on legal codes of practice, arbitration schemes and tribunal systems. The Trico strikers have given us an important lesson by their boycotting of the tribunal and then going ahead with and winning equal pay through through their own action.
We must not allow the militancy of women workers to be weakened by the Acts, but on the contrary use the increased expectations the Acts raise in the eyes of women, to encourage them to fight for their rights. We would only want cases taken to Tribunals as a means to further the organisation and demands of the working class and as part of a broader struggle and as a last resort. We should, while recognising the impossibility of legislation alone bringing real equal pay, support any moves to stop up the loopholes in the Acts. Determined strike action is the only way to win equal pay and we must begin to look at ways thes struggles can be co-ordinated with a broader fight for womens equality..
The Working Womens Charter Campaign raises certain key demands working class women need as the prerequisites to equality, such as the free nursery, abortion, contraception facilities, an end to legal and bureaucratic barriers to equality with regard to pensions, supplementary benefits etc, chaild benefits, adequate maternity leave and an end to discrimination in training and education. The importance of women taking an active part in trade unions coupled with the demands for a minimum wage for all workers, a sliding scale of wages under the control of the working class and work-sharing without loss of pay, are all linked to the key demand of ‘A Woman’s Right to Work’ which raises all the necessary prerequisites to women’s equality. These demands can provide the basis around which women can organise to fight their oppression and exploitation and co-ordinate their struggles. The WWCC played an important role in ensuring that the Trico strike was actively supported nationally and raising important initiatives to the strikers. Charter groups now must take up the lesson learnt from the Trico strike to spread them through out the labour movement and to help to build Charter groups within the trade unions. The Campaign is establishing Investigatory Committees to monitor all equal pay cases going into Tribunals within the context of important struggles for equal pay such as the one fought at Trico, and the savage attacks on the women and the working class through cuts in living standards, cuts in social expenditure and the increasingly high level of unemployment.
These investigatory committees would consist of Trade union branches, trades councils, Labour Parties, Women’s groups and Charter Groups. They should not be seen as passive research bodies, but compaigning bodies who would actively support strikes as they arise using the information from monitoring cases at Tribunals and trade union statistics. We must fight to build these committees and ensure them a strong base in the localities.
On February 26th at Alexandra Palace the WWCC has issued a call for a rally to assess women’s rights in the light of the legislation entitled ‘One Year On from the SDA — A Rally for Women’s Rights’. This is an important initiative and an opportunity for the working class to pool their experiences in struggle. Women will be telling of their struggles in nursery campaigns, fights for abortion facilities, child benefits, equal pay, Sex Discrimination, for the right to work, against cuts in social expenditure, in order to assess and co-ordinate the struggle for women’s rights.
The reason why the Trico strike is so important, for women and for the working class, is that women workers are prepared to fight for their rights, however hard the fight and however long the struggle and despite the attacks made on them by the Labour Government and the bosses. Women workers have shown that their strength and determination has not been diluted into a reliance on reformist legislation and anti working class Tribunals.
