Thursday 28th April
MADE IN DAGENHAM
Directed by Nigel Cole
UK, 2010, 113 mins
West Green Learning Centre, West Green Road, N15
DOORS OPEN 7pm
Entrance £3 waged/£2 low waged
Revolt and resistance took many forms in 1968. Just over forty years ago a group of women machinists at the Ford factory in Dagenham walked out when they discovered that they were being paid 15 per cent less than men for doing the same work. The company classed women’s work, stitching seats for Cortinas, as ‘unskilled’. Made in Dagenham is an uplifting account of a milestone in the history of the fight for equal pay in Britain.
The three-week strike brought Ford’s largest plant to a halt, prompting Labour’s Employment Minister Barbara Castle to intervene in negotiations. Though the eventual deal left the Dagenham strikers 8 per cent short of equality with their male co-workers, the strike set in train the movement that led to the landmark Equal Pay Act of 1970, that made discriminatory pay differentials illegal.
Despite occasional liberties with the historic record, Made in Dagenham is a perfect way to celebrate May Day. It is also a reminder that battle for social justice is far from over: in 2011 women working full time in Britain still earn on average 16.4 per cent less per hour than men working full time. The Libcon government wants to abolish the May Day bank holiday. Let’s celebrate an earlier act of collective resistance in the hope of more to come.
http://www.haringey.org.uk/hic/
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