the Equal Pay Act.
The background to the dispute dates back for a year. Bakers have been negotiating for that long to get the complex system of nine grades altered. The Union has stated although some progress made, the employers have refused to male then sa Dotage women working on 'morning goods"
- zuber centor une told worklore! this area - with £5.69 less than men doing thesame work.
The crunch determination of the bakers strengthened - when the employers proposed that all workers, male and female, be paid at the grade six rate. For women, currently grade nine, it would be an InCreases workers, now in grade five, it would Der cuLin waDesD22.09 The real test of the bakers' leaders commitment to women's equal rights will come if the employers retreat on their plans to cut male wages and the union is called upon to stick it out until the full demands of women workers are met.
The strike, if called, will affect Depending on the outcome of a National Executive Meeting, 34,000 OVIS.
that Deer kind of "rotating leave.
Although the refused to take the machinery stuered are pursucu all of the f5.69.
Ine need menDers ome 56,000sirone umon. will volve workers at plants of the following firms: Rank Rollers errench.
Coop bakeries. A tactic being con- such low sideree ovtne umon eddersno IS 018 strike workers from only two of the four firms taking action at thesame time.
union has so far dispute to the Central Arbitration Board, this expression or determination to rely or the action of union rather than the severen weakened if the tactics being conExperience has shown time and again that only the full, organised strength of the labour movement can lay the basis for a victorious struggle.
This means that even in factories where equal rates for the job are paid, nakers shoulo De called on to suppor the strike action taken in the four firmsaffected. It also entails a call for CHILLS membership around the demand for "whipped" on Fridays. They are asked too much to vote against their consciences. I support the right of MPs to vote according to LARC is only one part of a involvinG sections of the Labour, trade union and women's movement, which must continue to be built National Abortion Campaign to awomans right to choose. In response to the new Benyon Bill, NAC has called a lobby, march and day before the second reading of the Bill be voted NAC has called for a massive demonstraMay around the This strike can emerge as a national symbol of the growing awareness of derene extend women's rights. It will also be a crucial pointer towards the way forward for the working class as a whole.
The moves by many mis-leaders of the working class towards a phase three of the social contract are based on policies to restore wage differentials at the expense of the lower paid Any defeat of this strike would be part of paving the way for a new social contract negonated at une expense or paid workers as women.
Because of this. it is essential tha support action is organised from day one of thestoppage — action based on the political understanding of the centrally rights in the coming months If the morning goods worker emerge victorious through full and effective support from all sections of the labour and womens movement, one more nail will be driven into th coffin of the mis-leaders plans for the third phase of the unholy alliance between the Labour Government and the trade union bureaucracy.
DODIE WEPPLER
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According to the Bakers' Union — the first union ever to call a national equal pay strike — the men and women are standing firm against employers' attempts to sidestep the provisions of
taking place as Red Weekly goes to press, the bakers could be on strike beginning Monday 27 February.