TSOTM Jun 2024: Dagenham Women Strike

It celebrates the women workers at Ford’s Dagenham plant in England who walked out on strike for equal pay with male workers on 7 June 1968. The women, who sewed car seats, were classified as "unskilled", while men working at the same or similar jobs were classified as "skilled", and so were paid at a higher rate. All 187 women walked out, but even though the thousands of men in the plant remained at work, car production was brought to a complete standstill. Around 200 women at another UK Ford factory walked out in support. Initially, Ford refused to negotiate. One of the workers, Eileen Pullen, later recounted to the Guardian: "Some of the men said: 'Good for you girl', but others said: 'Get back to work, you're only doing it for pin money'… But our wages weren't for pin money, they were to help with the cost of living, to pay your mortgage and help pay all your bills. It wasn't pocket money. No woman would go out to work just for pocket money, would she? Not if she's got a family". After three weeks, the strikers eventually agreed to return to work for 92% of the men’s wages (up from 85%) in a deal brokered by the government. The strike was the key reason for the Equal Pay Act of 1970, although nominal pay equality at Ford was only achieved after a later strike in 1984.

Design by Scotland-based labor activist and cartoonist Jamie-Max Caldwell. It is a take on a photograph of the women with their banner declaring "We want sex equality" partially unfurled so that only "We want sex" was visible. The photograph was published by a newspaper deliberately trying to disparage or ridicule the women. This couldn't stop the women Ford machinists of 1968 though as they kept strong, stuck together, and thus helped improve the conditions not just for themselves but for women across the country.