The women workers remain concentrated in tne manua loos. wule ne relauvery rew men are mainly clerical staff and supervisors. In one or two instances where they do the same jobs, men earn double the An especially exploitative aspect of work at Induyco is the company policy of with holding 1,000 pesetas (just over £8) from monthly wages, which is used to open a compulsorv sales account at El Corte Ingles - one of the largest chain stores in Madrid, which happens to be owned by the Induyco firm!
The women are also subjected to all aspects of sexual oppression, including demanes rom me manasement Tor sexua favours. Special meetings have been organised on this issue - one held last week attracted 40 women who are beginning to question their specitie oppression as women as well as meir exploitanon as workers One of the most important features of the strike has in lace been is organisation and discussion of all issues. This has been achieved through the mass Assemblies. which were started last autumn with a regular attendance of about 700 workers berween January and the summer, however, the number of women attending shot up to 4-5,000.
Assemblies are now being held daily, and all major decisions on te conduct or ine strike are taken after a shop-by-shop discussion and a vote by the whole AssemDu ns mass navo vement ensures mat une determination to crush the strike.
Intimidation numidation nas taken several Torms The bourgeois press have been informed that advertisements for Induyco's chain store will be withdrawn if any publicity is given to the strikers - successfully. so that there is a real conspiracy of silence. The younger women have been directly pressurised through visits to parents and husbands at home. Finally. management and the police nave tried to persuade mme srikers that they are 'the victims of communist manipulation'.
But the women deny this vigorously. They tell the police: We are not manipulated by the communists. We are on strike because we are exploited by the capitalists. We are fighting for a socialist society. You are helping the capitalists when you tell us to return to work and refuse to let us meet.
The strikers' day begins at 7am, when they all go into the factory to argue with the women still working. Then at 9am the women, all 3,000 of them, leave the factory except on 8 September when employers put machinery in front of the gates to trap the strikers in the yard until the police arrived with fire hoses.