The women above are members of a militant trade union, the UFAWU, ‘and Ty the plant where they work they are one hundred percent _ tganized. Their union gives them a base from which to fight for _ €quality in other fields. Trade union women take leading role | ~ ‘They are the best trade UNionists we have,” says Brian ames, International €presentative, of the women in ffice and Technical Em- Ployees Union No. 378. This union has been on strike or four and a half months against Hertz-Avis-Tilden car Tental firms, and today there is 8 800d chance of a settlement. Half of the employees affected the strike are women who i been solid on the picket ines. They have had both finan- Clal and picketing help from other unions, says Brian James, ut in the main the striking Countér representatives and Clerical staff. have carried the all without a break since January 15. _ At the moment an agreement 'S being signed with Hertz in Ontreal which will, if all goes Well, serve as a basis for agree- Ment with Avis & Tilden. here are many women on the tewards’ Council of this union throughout B.C. * * * ‘ Employees at Skyway Luggage, 400 Charles St., have been on Strike since April. Eighty Percent of the employees are Women, most of them new Cana dians, The owner, a wealthy U.S. _ Citizen, made the insulting offer of an .05 cent an hour pay raise, Upping it to .10 cents an hour recently. This, on a minimum Tate of $1.48 an hour, with a few employees receiving _ the Maximum of $2.06 an hour! This company puts out Travel- Suard and Skyline Luggage, and Impson-Sears are handling it, along with Manitoba Hardware 'n the Hastings St. area. Woodwards, on the other hand, as not yet placed a large order Teceived prior to the strike on the store shelves. Please make Note of the stores which are, and which are not handling “hot” ‘luggage. This is one way we can help. The employees who are on strike are members of the Uphol- sterers’ International Union Local No. 1. They could do with some picketing help, for there are not too many of them to carry on day after day. Incidently, Fleet Express is acting as a distributing point for the company which is still sending out the stockpiled luggage even -though the operations are closed down. * OK OK A young union organizer who has a B.A. in anthropology is 24 year old Pamela Smith who has achieved a great deal for the Farm Worker Union in the brief time she has been in B.C. Pamela says that the women who are in the forefront of the Farm Workers. strike in California are under no illusions that their role isn’t every bit as important as that of the men who toil in the fields. Whole families work in the vineyards and vegetable fields and the women are playing key positions in organizing the strikes as well as the grape boy- cotts which have become familiar in Canada. Dolores Huerta is a vice-presi- dent of the union, and one of the chief negitators. Pamela Smith, who quit university to organize for the union in Vancouver, Says that her work with church groups, trade unions and students has been highly satisfying, but there is still much to be done in seeing that stores handle union label grapes, and those alone. Stores which have promised to handle the union label fruit and vegetables are Stongs; Malkin’s Wholesale which distributes to Food Fair, Shop Easy, High- Low, and Economart, and Slade and Stewart Wholesalers who supply Overwaitea. The Propping Dollar A study of figures released by provincial and federal depart- ments of labor reveals some astonishing gaps in pay rates between the sexes. The same studies reveal the sad fact that unionization has made all too little inroad among woman workers. The figures reveal a truth that should be obvious to any group of women who deem themselves “progressive.” That truth is that the battle for womens’ rights is going nowhere until the founda- tion is built on an economic, CLASS basis. Women are exploited. So are men. As Gus Hall, US. Communist Party leader puts it: “The problems in the struggle for the liberation of women are not just ‘women’s problems.” In fact, this is not a question of freeing women alone. The struggle for the liberation of women is an _. essential prerequisite and feature of the struggle for human society as a whole. It is a struggle that is in the self interest. and the responsibility of all who fight for social progress.” ECONOMIC FACTS In 1968, according to the federal department. of labor, women made up one out of three in the labor force, or 31.3 percent. InjB.C., according to a salary and wage rate survey made in September, 1969, there is a whopping big gap between the wages paid women and men in the same work category. As an example, inthe retail ‘and food stores, a Class A salesperson (female) receives an average weekly pay of $81.00. A salesperson (male) Class A, receives an average weekly rate of $118. A passenger elevator operator, _ (male) is paid $2.08 an hour, while a woman_ operator receives $1.93 an hour. ‘In the hospitals, salaries in certain categories show _a marked difference between men and women employees. A female - cook receives $430 a month; a male cook $501. A male x-ray technician rates $615 a month; female x-ray technician $552. Male lab technicians, $568; female lab technicians $551. All figures given are the average of all rates reported for a given occupation. These are but a few of the inequalities brought to light by the provincial government's own survey. MARRIED WOMEN Perhaps the most telling reflection of where it’s at with women workers in Canada is the fact that in all industries only 16.4 percent of women workers are unionized, as compared with 23.9 percent of male workers. In the services, (community, business and personal), women constitute more than 60 percent of total paid workers, but almost twice as many men as women are union members in this group. Any group of women-who want to challenge the system and “liberate” their sisters obviously have plenty to work on in that problem alone. So have the trade unions. ~* Jn 1941 less than 5 percent of married women were in the By MABEL RICHARDS Women liberation needs © fight on economic front It doesn’t take the mental capacity of an Einstein to come to the conclusion that women are going to be a lot closer to “liberation” when they gain economic equality in this society. And that, obviously, dictates a struggle on the economic front. labor force. By 1968 it has reached almost 30 percent. Why are they working? Many married women work because they want to get into the mainstream of society, dull as their jobs often become. They work because they have creative minds, and they work because they want to be part and parcel of a life beyond the four con- fining walls of a house. They work because it is their right. Two Canadian professors who recently made a survey of the question come up with another answer, however. They say: “There is clear and convincing evidence that a married woman is less likely to be in the labor force the higher the level of family income available, exclusive of her earnings.” In plain English, she goes to work because her husband’s pay cheque is not adequate to make ends meet. There is a good deal of evidence to show that both married and single women, parti- cularly in the white collar service industries, are amongst the most economically exploited workers in the community. The exploitation starts with wages which seldom top $350 a month and more often are in the $250-300 range. Income tax and other deductions leave them with a take-home pay of $65-75 a week. Then that granddaddy of all exploiters in a working girl’s life, B.C. Hydro bus system, takes another $20.25 a month off her pay cheque if she happens to commute from any of the areas out of the city proper. Add to her expenses the modish clothes which are manda- tory to ‘‘look right on the job,” plus cosmetics, plus hairdos and wigs, plus rent and food, and you have a financial picture at the end of the month which shows up _ as one big zero. INDUSTRIAL Women workers in B.C. industries are, to some extent, unionized. Some of the eléctrical manufacturing plants, the fish canneries, print shops, cabinet making, etc., are union shops. But there are many plants which employ goodly numbers of women which are not unionized, and in some of them almost sweat-shop conditions prevail. Gus Hall points out that corporations foster and hang on to policies of discrimination against non-unionized women workers, because they produce as much as men but they receive 24 percent less in wages for the same work. Therefore, as he points out, the problem of organizing the unor- ganized is closely related to getting the leadership of the trade unions to see the new importance of standing at the head of the struggle against discrimination because of sex. $ : Hall points out there is no reason why women workers should not organize themselves into women’s caucuses in shops and local unions. Such caucuses can join forces with other rank and file movements. LOCAL SCENE Not only must working women be in the forefront of the fight PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 1970—Page 3 against exploitation, but the situation prevailing today in B.C. dictates that housewives take a vital role in the struggle. A shining example of what women are doing in this field is the work being carried on by the wives of the tugboat men now on strike. These women can be seen everywhere with petitions, .and are carrying on a wide-spread information campaign as to the conditions under which their husbands have been forced to work. The wives of men locked out by the Employers’ Council; the women who today face genuine hardship through the mass attack upon their families by the wealthy priviledged few in this province have upon their shoulders, along with their men, the. task of seeing that their children do not go hungry. _- They know well that for years their provincial and: federal taxes, and unemployment deduc- tions have gone into coffers from which Phil Gaglardi and the UIC now withholds benefits when they are needed. Not for long will housewives and mothers put up with this arro- gance on the part of provincial and federal government stooges. ; A long tough summer lies ahead, and women will be in the forefront of the fight against the rank discrimination now being displayed by UIC and welfare offices. Housewives, mothers, the women in the union auxiliaries, students — all are becoming aware that womens’ struggle is first of all an economic struggle, indeed, a CLASS struggle, for they face the forces of capitalism on all levels of life — in the factory, in the office, in the supermarket, in the tax offices and in the actions of government departments which assist the employer’s attack on the worker. Ses PTS SL Ae US. ci] wae Pee ANDRAS ENEMY IN SIGHT, SIR! ” VIETNAM AID Don’t forget the Pancake Brunch to raise funds for emergency medical aid for Vietnam civilians. It will be held at 1331, West 50th Ave., (Van. 14) from 9:30 ae to 2 p.m., on Sunday, June ib All friends of the Vietnam people are urged to attend. Tickets are $1 for adults, children under 12, .50 cents.