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Women |
WORKING WOMEN AND
THE COUNCIL
Extract from To Unite More Closely
SA Unions History 1884 - 1984
Chapter Five
by Eleanor Ramsay
During the five years following the formation of the United Trades and Labor Council of
South Australia, none of the increasing affiliated unions had women members and there
was virtually no industrial organisation amongst women workers.
Women in the paid workforce were employed as domestic servants, shop assistants,
nurses, teachers and in varying occupations in the clothing trades.
Only among teachers was there unionization, while among domestic servants, who
represented the largest area of women's paid employment and who worked under the
harshest conditions, there was none at all.
However, it was the poor conditions and low wages of the second largest category of
women workers - seamstresses, tailoresses and milliners - which led to the formation of
the first women's trade union in South Australia. These women were also the focus for
major labour movement activity at the turn of the century in the fight to ensure legislative
protection for factory workers and for those subjected to the abuses of 'sweating', which
was life in clothing trade.
Working Women's Unions
In its early years, the Council had informal links with women workers, some of whom,
like Augusta Zadow, were already advocating the formation of women's unions.
It was at a public meeting in December 1889, held as a result of increasing concern over
the conditions of seamstresses and tailoresses, that steps were set in motion towards
this end. Held in the Adelaide Town Hall, the meeting was jointly organised by the
Council and the Lord Mayor. Although the main speakers were male, it was Mrs. Mary
Lee who suggested the meeting request the Council 'to take immediate steps to form
female trade unions in all branches of industry where the sweating exists'.
In January, 1890, the working Women's Union was formed. Several men held office in its
early months of existence, but the women themselves quickly took control, with Mary
Lee becoming President and Augusta Zadow Treasurer. The Union soon affiliated with
the Council, its two delegates becoming the first female members of the Council and
being outnumbered 48 to 2 by their male comrades.
By 1892 the Union had 300 to 400 members, almost all of whom were tailoresses or
seamstresses. It existed for 15 years, its two major concerns and activity being the lack
of industrial organisation among women and the poor conditions for workers in the
clothing trades.
In 1895 the Factory Act was passed, requiring the registration of all workshops with six
or more workers and Augusta Zadow was appointed Female Factory lnspector on 27th
February, 1895.
However, despite the activities of the Working Women's Union resulting in better run
workrooms and improved conditions in some factories, no progress had been made
towards improving the prices paid to outworkers. Although these workers, the majority of
whom were women, laboured under the harshest conditions for the period, they were
almost impossible to identify, let alone organize. The Working Women's Union was
active in pushing for legislative protection against the recognized abuses of sweating
and in setting up an anti-sweating league to this end.
The Council was aware of the successful activities of the Victorian Anti-Sweating League
and so in 1900, when a League was set up in South Australia, the Council urged
members to support its activities.
The investigations of the Council's own Select Committee into Sweating revealed not
only the prevalence of the abuse in the clothing trades but the improvement in wages
and conditions which had followed the establishment of wages boards in Victoria. Yet,
when the 1900 Factories Act Amendment made provision for similar wages boards in
South Australia, it took another four years before the first Boards were set up. These
were years marked by a passionate struggle by the Council against employers' attempts
to prevent this occurring. When, late in 1904, the necessary legislative machinery was
passed, the Council was vigilant in ensuring the Boards operated as intended.
Realizing that the lack of organization amongst women workers left them vulnerable to
harsh conditions, the Working Women's Union worked hard to increase its membership -
organizing meetings of workers, appealing to Council members to encourage their relatives and friends to join, and seeking advice from interstate unions with large
female membership.
With the support of the Council in 1905 the Union brought the Victorian 'lady organizer',
Miss Lillian Locke, to the state for a fortnight. She spoke to a large meeting at the
Adelaide Town Hall on, 16th September, on 'Women and the Labour Socialist Movement', and spent the fortnight tirelessly addressing a series of meetings of women
workers in Adelaide, Port Pirie, Clare and Peterborough.
Apart from her efforts at direct recruitment, Miss Locke advised the Union on tactics to
increase their membership. It was on her advice that the Union changed its name to the
Women Employees' Mutual Association, and so the affairs of the Working Women's
Union were wound up.
The work of one member, Miss E R Hanretty a founding member and trustee of the
Mutual Association, stands out in particular. She occupied each one of the union's
executive position, was a delegate to the Council and employees' representative on the
first Laundresses Wages Board and a Council representative on the Royal Commission
into the Shortage of Labour. In 1913 she was a founder and first President of the
Women's Political Education Association. in 1914 became an Australian Labor Party
(ALP) organizer and in 1917 became Assistant Secretary of the South Australian branch
of the ALP.
Despite the best efforts of the Women Employees' Mutual Association and of the
Working Women's Union before it, the mass of women workers remained without
industrial organization.
In 1908 it was proposed that a 'lady organizer be appointed with a view to the proper
organising of women workers' and the Council decided to ask affiliates to contribute
towards the cost of doing this. However, despite combining forces with the United
Labour Party and appeals for funds made to the affiliates of both bodies, these were not
forthcoming, and no further motion of the appointment is made in Council minutes for
another five years.
By June 1914 the Government Women Workers had formed and affiliated and during the
few years that it existed alongside the Women Employees Mutual Association, there
were up to seven women delegates co the Council. The delegates of both unions were
active on several Council committees as well as regularly attending Council meetings.
Working Women's Charter Committee was established to work toward the implementation of the Charter.
In mid-1917 all references to the Women Employees' Mutual Association cease without
explanation, and with it ends a level of women's involvement in the Council which would
nor be equalled again until the 1980's.
World War 1
With the outbreak of World War 1 and the subsequent dramatic increase in women's
participation in the workforce, interest revived in the issue of better organisation of
women workers. In June 1914, an E E Mitchell wrote to the Council 'on behalf of a large
number of women' pointing out that 'a female organizer could be employed with great
benefit alike to your Council and to women workers as well as the cause generally [and]
asking whether the Council would provide financial assistance for this to occur'. The
Council agreed 'to meet with the ladies for the purpose of discussing the scheme'. Once
more a series of unsuccessful appeals for funds were made to affiliates. However, in
July 1916, it was decided to go ahead with the appointment regardless of the
inadequacy of funds, and on 11th August, 1916, Mrs B Roberts was elected to the
position.
During her 12 months as the Council organizer of women workers Mrs Roberts kept the
Council closely in touch with her activities. She worked with employees in restaurants,
groceries, laundries, hospitals, the brewery and the printing and clothing trades. In two
months she recruited 48 new members. However, despite the apparent success of her
work, the expressed gratitude of union officials, the obvious need for the appointment,
and great efforts by the Council to extricate contributions from affiliates, the funds simply
never arrived.
In April, 1917, the Council decided that 'in view of the financial position, the engagement
of Mrs Roberts as organizer dispensed with', and further moves to make another such
appointment in 1918 were to no avail.
The Council was extremely conscious of the industrial implications for its male members
of the influx of women into the workforce during the war. When the Council proposed
equal pay 'where awards cover men and women doing the same work', it was prompted
by a fear that the lower rates women received to perform work previously done by men
might undermine the conditions which male workers had fought for and achieved. Yet
there was also concern to improve the conditions for women workers for when the
concept of the 'family wage' determined that women's wages were set at 54% of men's
at the end of the first war, the Council registered a strong protest.
Inter-War Years
Despite the post-war recession and unemployment, women's participation in the
workforce continued to increase as they moved into factory and white collar work, and as
manufacturing expanded. However, the high level of workforce sex-segregation
strengthened, for with women's being set at little over half men's, work had to be defined
as male or female.
Employers responded by trying to classify more jobs as women's work, while trade
unions defended their conditions by applying to have women expelled from most areas
of employment.
By 1925 there were no longer women's unions and no female delegates to Council. The
interest in the industrial organization of women had sunk to a very low ebb.
The depression of the 1930's did nothing to rectify this situation, with a great deal of
hostility being directed towards what appeared as abundance of cheap female labour.
Women were unfairly blamed for unemployment and it was feared that their low wages
would undermine the wages of men.
World War II
When World War II broke out in 1939, Australia was still recovering from the depression
and it is in this context that the reaction of Government, unions and employers to the
influx of a further 94,000 women into the paid workforce during WWII must be viewed.
After the escalation of the war effort caused by Pearl Harbour and the bombing of
Darwin, the Government moved to set up the Women's Employment Board (WEB) as a
means of channelling even greater numbers of women into 'heavy industry while at the
same time satisfying the unions that this would not undermine male wages and work
conditions, nor lead to a shortage of jobs for men.
The WEB was empowered, for the duration of the war, to set rates of pay of between 60-100% of the male rate for women who were doing jobs normally performed by men.
Employer organizations and the Federal Liberal Opposition were implacably opposed to
the measure, despite the 'cost-plus' system which would ensure their profits regardless
of the higher rates. They fought the establishment of the Board in Parliament and
through challenges to its powers in the High Court, presumably motivated by fears that it
would set a precedent for equal pay.
A large number of industrial disputes resulted from the refusal or reluctance of
employers to comply with the WEB determinations. However, when employers eventually succeeded in halting the Web's operations and its work was taken over by the
Arbitration Commission, its previous decisions continued to apply. The WEB set the
rates of some 80,000-90,000 of the 800,000 women in the paid workforce at this time,
giving 100% of the male rate to nine categories and 90% to a further eight categories of
employment.
The Council was solidly behind the establishment and operation of the WEB and was
disgusted by moves to obstruct and overturn it. Concern was not limited to a desire to
protect male conditions and men's jobs - although this certainly was a consideration - for
in March, 1943, the Council unsuccessfully requested that the WEB's powers be
extended to cover all women working in industry, not solely those who had taken on
men's work. It took steps to retain women's wartime higher rates beyond the war period,
campaigning energetically for an extension of the Government's wartime powers in the
1944 referendum and calling a meeting of all unions which covered women workers
to fight to keep their higher rates early in 1946. However, the referendum was lost and
women's rates were set at 75% of those of men.
War-time changes for women were not limited to new areas of work and higher rates of
pay, for the whole period was marked by a dramatic change both in the perceptions of
women workers regarding the relevance of the union movement to them and in the
extent of their active and visible involvement in it.
In 1939 only 32.8% of women workers belonged to a union and this had risen to 51.9%
of an enormously expanded female workforce by 1945. There was also a corresponding
increase in the number of women organizers and office-holders.
Mary Miller (then Warren), a munitions worker during the war, admits that like many
other women workers, she knew little about unions at the start of the war. She went on
to become a shop steward and Organiser for the Munitions and Ironworkers Union and
recalls that 'women developed tremendously during the war and we've never really gone
back.' 'In 1942 Elizabeth Johnston became Branch Secretary and organiser for the
Federated Clerks Union. When elected Council Treasurer in 1945, she became the first
woman on the Council's Executive.
Women lost both their war-time jobs and higher rates of pay at the end of the war, but
their workforce participation expanded enormously during the period which followed. A
marked increase in the number of married and immigrant women workers occurred right
throughout the post-war period.
Equal Pay and Unionisation
The two key industrial issues of the post-war period were, and continue to be, the
achievement of equal pay and the unionisation of women Workers. It had taken 19 years
for the female basic rate to climb from 50% of the male rate to 54% in 1910, another 14
years to reach 75%, and it would be a long 25 year battle (a battle which the ACTU
would lead) before the principle of equal pay was accepted - and still many years more
before it will be achieved in practice.
In 1957 the ACTU convened a national conference of unions with women members on
equal pay and conditions and soon after set up a national Equal Pay Committee.
In 1962 the Council set up its own Equal Pay Committee and held an Equal Pay Week of
factory gate meetings, radio talks and other discussions around the issue. The
Committee continued to meet and report to the Council throughout the 1960's.
In 1969 the ACTU case for equal pay resulted in the judgement that new classifications would not relate to sex. However, since the determination was not to
apply to work essentially or usually performed by females, it changed nothing for the
vast majority of women workers.
Then, in the 1972 wage case, the ACTU made yet another claim for equal pay
which resulted in the momentous decision that women were to be awarded the male rate
regardless of the work they were doing.
In 1971 women made up a third of the workforce. Their numbers continued to increase
throughout the rest of the decade and this was paralleled by renewed activism in the
labour movement, with the percentage of women workers who were unionists growing
from 35% in 1969 to 46% in 1978.
Working Women's Centres
In September, 1975, the federally funded Working Women's Centre was opened to work
to increase women's union involvement and to assist unions in their struggles on behalf
of their women members. The drafting of a charter of rights for working women by the
Centre and the adoption of a similar Charter for Working Women by the ACTU in 1977
led to Council involvement In a national conference on the Charter's implications. In
June, 1975, a Council, Working Women's Charter Committee, to work towards the
implementation of the Charter.
The Charter Committee forwarded a series of resolutions of significance to working
women which the Council adopted in September, 1978. Known now as the Working
Women's Standing Committee, this active and energetic committee continues to work for
the increased unionisation of women workers and to raise union commitment to issues
of particular relevance to women workers.
In 1978 the Labor Government in South Australia established a Working women's
Centre in this state. The state funded centre is run by a management committee
with three Council representatives and has always worked in close cooperation and with
the active support of the Council.
The Centre has had three Directors, Betty Williams, Jenny Neari and Stephanie Key,
and has campaigned on a large number of issues of concern to working women,
including repetition injury, sexual harassment and child care. The Centre has also
encouraged women's active participation in unions through such activities as the
formation of informal networks between women unionists and by encouraging unions to
give more emphasis to women's industrial issues.
The century of women's involvement with the Council has been one of periods of high
activity and interests sandwiched between others of relative neglect and mutual
disinterest. High activity has corresponded to the war years and is related to the
accompanying dramatic increase by women's participation in the workforce.
During the first war there were up to seven women delegates and during the second war
a woman became Council Treasurer and a member of the Executive. Yet, there were
only eight women delegates in 1983 and there has never been another woman on the
Executive. But, the pattern is changing, women's increased participation in the workforce
during the 1960's boom has continued despite the recession with a steady increase in
labour movement activism throughout this period.
The appointment of Noeline Rudland in 1984 means that once again the Council has a
full-time female official - the second since the short-lived work of the 'lady organizer'
nearly 80 years ago.
It is fitting that the Council's centenary year should also correspond with the affiliation of
the two unions with the largest female membership covering nurses and teachers. In
these two areas women have predominated and the affiliation of their unions has more
than doubled the previous number of women delegates of the past one hundred years.
SUGGESTED READING
K. Hargreaves, Women at Work., (Ringwood, 1982)
M. Bevege et al (ed) Worth her Salt, Women at Work in Australia. (Sydney, 1982)
K. Daniels and M. Murnane, Uphill all the Way, A Documentary History of Women in
Australia, (St Lucia, 1980)
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