Part 1 — Women’s Stories

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“The boss behaved like a petty dictator”; unions don’t help women, either

Asuncion Peralta

This paper was presented at a Migrant Women Workers' Speak Out in Sydney, Australia, in 1982. It is reprinted, with some changes, from the journal Migration Action, Volume VI, No 2, 1982.

According to International Workers' Organisation statistics, 575 million women, representing thirty-five per cent of the world's workforce, are employed. But these women do not earn more than one tenth of the world's income. In this present period of crisis, the scourge of unemployment and the anti-worker attitudes of the exploiting classes fall with special violence on women.

Legislation in several countries recognises the principle of "equal pay for equal work"; however, in real terms, the discrepancy between remuneration received by men and that received by women can be up to fifty per cent. In the underdeveloped countries, to which many transnational corporations have moved their operations, working women are scandalously badly paid, the average salary amounting to about one tenth of that earned in developed countries.

The World Health Organisation has pointed out that, among the workers of the capitalist countries, women are the most affected by particular types of professional sicknesses—especially in those factories where toxic components such as amianthus, zinc and lead are used. The intensification of work and the harmful working conditions not only compromise the health of the women, but also put their reproductive functions in danger.

These are cold figures, as are all statistics, and they don't reflect the crude realities under which a working woman lives.

Australia is not free of these problems. The situation here is more alarming when the particular problems confronting migrant women workers are considered. Not only do we suffer underemployment, sexual discrimin- ation and harassment, humiliating working conditions, the unfulfilled right of equal pay for equal work, and tremendous exploitation on the job, but we are also subject to racial discrimination and a lack of communication with our own working companions.

Now I would like to give an account of my personal experience as a

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worker; being personal, it is limited, but demonstrative of the degrading situation in which we migrant working women live.

I was working for six months in the "Chef kitchen furniture factory in Melbourne. In this factory, the women do the same work as the men, and in some cases they have to do heavy work. But they receive approximately thirty per cent less pay. The women are not able to go to the toilet without the permission of the boss.

I was one of the more fortunate women who did light work. I became pregnant, and they sacked me as soon as they realised. My fellow workers informed the boss of my state. The total insecurity of the work, together with the competitive system imposed by the managers, created the environment in which this could happen. The boss was in control of the situation, and each person tried to keep on good terms with him, as a way of ensuring the security of their positions; this humiliated the workers. The occurrence of sexual harassment also degraded women workers.

The last factory I worked in was the "Kortex" factory—makers of underwear. There, they used the compulsory bonus system—one of the most refined systems of exploitation. Of course, certain levels of production are required, but nobody knows exactly what these limits are. Consequently, the workers feel they must push themselves to produce more and more, because they are afraid they will not reach the required output level, and thus will lose their jobs. If the bonus incentive is added to this, the result is that the workers work without being able to stop for a second.

In that factory, there were various types of work,, and each paid differently. Bonuses paid also varied according to which job a worker was in. This system is also degrading because it promotes competition, envy, favoritism and individualism among the workers. The bonus payments were two weeks in arrears, and the office often made mistakes by "coincidence", paying badly. When this happened, we had to reclaim and wait for the following week. However, the boss reserved the right to subtract fifty cents 1 from a worker's salary for each error she made on the job.

The boss behaved like a petty dictator. The worker only had the right to work. If she complained, she got the following answer: "if you don't like it, go home". And so the woman was continually humiliated and degraded in her work.

There was a strike at Kortex in the first week of December last year. The claims were, principally, for an increase in salary, but also for the abolition of the bonus system and control over the time of going to the toilet. The strike continued for one week, due to the strength and determined participation of the working women—and despite the power of the management. On the first day of the strike, the bosses and their paid thugs intimidated the workers in an attempt to make them return to work. During the following days, the bosses tried to break the strike, offering protection to those who wanted to return to work. It was only the courage of the women that kept the strike going. The union tried to force the women to go back to work without having achieved any of their claims.

On the last day of the strike, the union called for a vote inside the factory. We entered the factory in groups of seven or eight, and the police checked us

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on our way in. Once inside, the union leader called on us to return to work, saying that those who wanted to continue the strike had other jobs. We did return to work because Christmas was coming and we needed the money. It was because of the strong organisation of the women that we were able to achieve one of our claims: an increase in salary.

Sadly, there are unions that do not carry out their principal function of defending the rights of the workers. One of the great problems which workers confront is the lack of participation in the union. And, unfortunately, the majority of unions do not turn their attention to this problem.

Notes

1. $ US 0.35.

Women workers in a textile factory in Melbourne, Australia.

Photo: ACTU Working Women’s Centre