Working Womens Charter

Some time ago we introduced in the Plough, the concept of a Working Women’s Charter for Irish women. This idea has already raised some interest among women in the Trade Union Movement. Here we put forward the following terms as our suggestions to the charter.

1. New equal pay legislation based on the principle of the rate for job regardless of sex, at rates negotiated by the trade union movement, with a national minimum wage.

The present equal pay legislation is completely inadequate. First, it is based on “equal pay for work of equal value”, this leaves many loopholes for the employers to downgrade women and still allow them to pay women poorly where there are few or no men employed.

Putting forward the demand of the rate for the job with a National Minimum Wage (the demand of the National Federation of Shop Stewards and Rank & File workers Committees for £35.00 minimum wage could be raised in this context) immediately shifts the emphasis from the false arena of male versus female job evaluation.

Secondly, the present legislation also puts the pressure on the woman to claim equal pay not on the employer to implement it, and gives no job security to women who claim equal pay so that arfemployer could, in theory, sack a woman successful in a claim.

Lastly it also has clauses which effectively stop automatic parity for women employed in the same industry; equal pay, at present has to be fought for not only job by job, but factory by factory (even inside the same concern).

2. Equal educational opportunities for girls and boys and an end to church control of education. The education system is one of the first places a woman learns her role. Many schools still do not offer girls the opportunity to study subjects they would need for trade and professional qualifications. Even if they do the emphasis is on girls preparing to be wives and mothers rather than for careers. This is especially true of schools run by religious orders.

3. An end to discrimination against women in apprenticeships and day release course, all unions to open their membership to women. Retraining schemes to be fully available to women. Even in industries that are attempting equal pay women are still in general viewed as cheap expendable labour. Few employers will invest in training girls and women.

The right to equal opportunity in this as in education is an important part of the demand of women to be recognised as powerless to control their lives.

The Plough — page 8 4. Anend to discrimination in employment on the basis of sex.

A self-evident civil right, but miany advertisements for jobs still state that only men need apply.

5. Family Planning Centres in every town subsidised by State grants. Facilities to be open to all who need them.

Unless women have the right to control their own fertility, they are powerless to control their lives. At present contraception is not at all easily available, only barely legal and unavailable in general to people outside Dublin. At present there is a small-scale service operating in Dublin, government grants should be available to extend this to all parts of the country as they have the necessary information and experience in this. Also, this way women would have more chance of an efficient safe backup service, than if supplies came through G.P.s, something that is extremely necessary in the case of the Pill and inter-uterine devices. movement, by the ma themselves, In many cases the establishment of Student 0 Concentrate this years campaign on Burkes Proposals to the detriment of the grants and finance campaign, shows how isolated he and his, ‘Sticky’ allies are from the real Opinions arx beds of students, How then did political groups at the congrest Project themselves? David Vipond of the Maoists, along with the R.M.G. comrades was he only one to really fight on the issues of udent democracy and the cutbacks ineducational expenditure. Carol Coulter of thi L.W.R. however, did not intervene at all in these important discussions nor in the debate on the national question. One can only conclude that she considered these issues to be peripheral, The Officials totally opposed allowing in the North to develop and crammed this sectio S8ssion, only two people were allowed to speak nto 15 minutes of the Congress’ time, Unde eded Now!

6. Legalisation of abortion one here, in safety.

(t Nas been said that U.S.1. consists of merely three men, an office and a typewriter and such a statement does bear some relation to the actual weakness of the student movement in Ireland. U.S.1. is little more than the sum of its constituent Organisations and reflects all of their weaknesses; more than this, it is tied to an in @ vacuum of “convincing” the trade union movement of the correctness of its emands through talks with its bureaucracy 5S has not changed of student representation aking still takes Place, j Mass of students, and nternational Affairs the Sinn Fein officers spent long hours in introducing resolutions of solidarity with struggling peoples but were hostire to criticisms of treatment of dissidents in the Soviet Union. On this question Pat Brady and Rrendan Glynn interrupted R.M.G. speakers, and tried to use bureaucratic manoeuvres to void the issues of workers democracy being raised. David Vipond proposed a resolution calling for denunciation of the Soviet Union as ’‘social imperialist’. im commission session (the smalier workshop-type:sessions) this promoted a lot of healthy discussion on the economic and political situation in Russia, the parasitic nature of the j@scow bureaucracy and its relationship to the any debate on the crisis situation socialised means of production. But in the general against the motion, while an important decisio This will be, of course a controversial demand to raise, but the numbers of women, alone, who take the mailboat each week to use English facilities prove the need for it. Women who want an abortion should have the civil right to have 7. The same unemployment benefits fox all regardless of sex or marital status With the rapid growth in unemployment it is even more essential that women put this demand Too often unemployment figures are disguised by the fact that women aren’t counted as part of the number, it is important that women are recognised as part of the bone fide work force.

- The officers of U.S.}. are elected by a narrow semi-bureaucratic layer of students and those electéd only have as their qualification the necessary one of being able to manipulate this layer. it is no cOincidence that the centrist politics of Official Sinn Fein should triumph in this situation, Using a combination of red-scare tactics and bourgeois rationality they have created @ permanent niche for themselves in the leadership of the union. They thus pose the question of differirig politics in terms of “being easonable”’ as apart from being “political!

Otivated’. Asa result, instead o questioning the strategy and tactics used by U.S.1. in the grants and finance campaign, they blamed the Dn abortion was referred back to national council. “It is obvious then, that there is a real need for discussing political differences in the national student movement, outside of the confines imposed by U.S.1. It is also necessary that U.S.1. should begin to relate its theoretical committment to socialism to actually beginning to fight fo students demands, rather than trying to quell enthusiasm and militancy, The lessons of the US.|, grants campaign and the arrest of 50 students in Dublin and Galway show the way forward, mass democracy must be linked wit ass action. 8. At least 12 weeks paid maternity leave, with no loss of job security, pension rights, promotion or bonuses Working mothers, very clearly, have special needs and yet the small concessions employers are prepared to offer to these are grudged them.

While women are the child bearers there should be proper provision for their needs in the work situation. At present women are encouraged to have children, by all sorts of social and moral pressures, and then are penalised for doing so.

9 . Provision of nurseries and day-care facilities, subsidised by the state at a minimal cost to the mother.

This is very much tied to the 8th point. It should be the right of every working mother to have access to nurseries and day-care facilities staffed by trained personnel, without having to pay exorbitant fees.

This is far from the case in Ireland now, Dublin for example, has only a handful of day nurseries and yet the number of working mothers has risen rapidly during the last few years.

10. The right to all social welfare benefits to be extended to women at the same rates as men, all people looking after children to have the right to claim family allowances, full rights for ingle-parent families.

at home with a tiny allowance, while men can claim a housekeeper allowance to look after the children while they work.

11. An end to woman’s unequal position in family law, both partners to have the samsrights with regard to children, domiciles, marital property and finance. The right to legally end the marriage should also be recognised. Women, are to all purposes, chattels in Irish family law, that is part of their husbands property and under his jurisdiction.

Any working womens charter should seek to change this, as it is a large part of women’s oppression here.

12, an anti-discrimination Bill which would legally enforce all aspects of a Working Womens Charte Although this wouldn’t solve the problems of Irish women overnight, it would be an portant tactical victory for us MAEVE DOLAN | SRSA DSTI UU cr EE

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analytical method doomed to failure, reflected in its ideas of student commitment

failure of the campaigtion lack of committment by the local student Organisations, Again, the proposal by the Presigént-elect David Kavanagh

peg, 1 sce social welfare system is full of anomalies with many glaring inequalities. The implementation of this demand would end, for example the situation where women looking after children by themselves are expected to stay