|
The DARE Janitress Campaign
from Womankind (1972)
(Editors Note: DARE (Direct Action for Rights in Employment) was the
CWLU workgroup involved with work and discrimination. Their best known
and most successful campaign was their work with the City Hall janitresses,
who were battling gender and racial discrimination.)
One of the
programs of the CWLU is DARE - Direct Action for Rights in Employment.
The following is an account of the work they have done in the past year.
In January,
1972, the CWLU began to plan a program around the grievances of working
women. We did this because we believe that women will not be liberated
until we are able to earn enough money to support ourselves, and our
families when necessary. We will not be able to do this until we win
many changes: equal pay for equal work; (and the right to equal work!);
maternity leave; retraining programs; child care for when we work,
to name a few.
We found
many women who wanted to work with us. We met many women through the
Liberation School class “Women and the Economy.” Lots of women
who had been fighting sex discrimination for years by themselves without
the support of any organization backing them up came when they heard
about us. The program quickly became made up of an assortment of women
ranging in age from 20 to 60, working at many of the jobs that women
usually work at: secretaries, janitresses, nurses aides, factory workers.
Women from many jobs and backgrounds can be united against job discrimination,
we found out.
In late
1971, the CWLU had been contacted by one of the janitresses at City
Hall. Her grievances were: she received less pay for equal work, her
seniority was ignored when she asked to be transferred from night shift
to day shift, and her supervisor had refused to release her to a new
and better position that she qualified for. Her grievances had been
ignored by her union (Building Services #46), and by the Civil Service
Commission. She wanted the CWLU to give her new ideas, lend moral support,
and act as a pressure group on the city. We decided to focus first
on equal pay for equal work because it was a very concrete demand.
Our first step was to research the issue. We learned the civil service
codes, the anti-discrimination laws, and got hold of a copy of the
city budget. We then heard of a study on sex discrimination that Alderman
Leon Despres, one of the few aldermen who really represents the people,
was doing. We talked to him and agreed to be part of a coalition to
release that study. The coalition of women’s groups included NOW. the YWCA,
the League of Women Voters, and the CWLU.
On June
29 this coalition of women’s organizations held a press conference
to release Alderman Despres’ sex discrimination findings. His report,
showed that 80% of all city hall employees making over $14,000 per year
were men and that 90% of all city hall employees making under $8, 000
per year were women. The city’s official response was “The
ladies of Chicago are the finest in the country. There is no discrimination
against our ladies. “
Our strategy
was to have a demonstration at the end of the summer with a short play
about women in the economy and speakers. We spent the summer leaf letting
city hall and a few other city buildings about Despres’ findings
and about the city’s response. Lots of women were outraged that
the Mayor and his cohorts discriminated against women the way they did;
we also met women who were machine hacks, wives and sisters of influential
machine Democrats who were hostile towards anyone disagreeing with Hiz
Honor.
We wanted
the demonstration on August 26th, a day that for the past few years
has had women’s liberation demonstrations all over the country.
That was the week of the Lakefront Festival, though, and the city wasn’t
about to give a bunch of angry women their Civic Center Plaza. The demonstration,
finally held on September 1st, was a success. The demands were:
- End job discrimination in city government, starting with equal
pay for the janitresses.
- Begin an affirmative action program (a program whose goal is equal
pay and equal opportunity in all job classifications. It makes the
employer responsible for seeking out qualified women.)
- The Mayor publicly should say that he is for an ordinance banning
discrimination against women.
We started
the day off by marching over to the Mayor’s office. We didn’t
get to see hizzoner. He had had a hard summer, with the Democratic Convention
and all, and wasn’t up to meeting with more people who were angry
at him. We spoke to Deputy Mayor Ken Sain. Mr. Sain was very nice to
us, saying oh yes, well he would get us a meeting with the wonderful
Mayor, and yes, tsk, tsk, the poor janitresses, and his secretaries
would set up another meeting between us and him and he would work on
it.
Later, at
the rally, we did our skit and everyone loved it. NOW spoke, as did
AFSCME (The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees,
a good union), and CWLU. Lots of people, men and women, came.
The second
time we met with Mr. Sain his attitude had changed quite a bit. He
claimed the city already had an affirmative action program, which we
knew was false. He did agree to investigate the job category of janitresses
and janitors. In mid-November we went into our last negotiating session
with Ken Sain. He told us that the Budget Dept. had reviewed the case
of the janitresses and that “compensations had been made”
in the 1973 budget. We were skeptical, but took his words to mean janitresses
pay had been equalized.
On November
15 the budget was released and we found out what slippery Mr. Sain
meant by compensation. The title of janitor had been changed to custodial
worker, and janitress to custodial assistant, while the pay gap between
the two increased even more. Now the janitresses would have to suffer
under a job title which implied subservience to the janitors as well
as continue to do equal work for less pay.
Learning
what the compensations were, we went on to attack the 1973 budget.
Once the Mayor releases the budget it is very hard to win changes.
We decided to give it a try and went to the public hearings of both
the Finance Committee and the City Council. On November 20, the day
of the Finance Committee hearings, we started the day off with a very
successful press conference. We then read testimony denouncing the
sex discrimination in the 1973 budget. At the hearings we blasted the
change in job classifications and the $1060 difference in pay between
the men and the women.
After these
hearings, many janitresses who were not in the group got in contact
with us. They had heard about their new job titles and were furious.
They wanted to get together, but were afraid for their jobs. We set
up anonymous interviews with three city reporters and got some very
good stories, one on the front page of the Daily News.
On December
15 we testified at a public city council meeting again demanding equal
pay for the janitresses. When Jennifer R., acting as spokeswoman for
DARE, finished her testimony, members of the DARE group sitting in
the galleries held up a sign which read “Give the city budget a clean
sweep”, which was promptly ripped down by the council policemen!
WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED
One thing
we have learned is how much women’s passivity holds us back. We
have been taught from childhood to be passive. Women don’t run
around making demands for things we deserve. We either take what we
get or have to try using our feminine ways to get what we need. It is
very hard to get over this! The way Mr. Sain treated us and our typical
women’s response (believing him, not demanding he prove what he
was saying) taught us a lesson we’ll never forget!
We also
learned how a very mixed group of women could unite around an issue
that affects us all. Secretaries, factory workers, janitresses and
nurses aides were all working together to fight for an end to job discrimination.
We also learned the powerfulness of how the newspapers and TV have
portrayed women’s liberation for the past few years. Many women were scared
of us because they expected us to be the whole image of bra burning
wierdos. Only our continued growth as a strong women’s liberation
organization that fights for real changes in women’s lives will
change that image.
THE FUTURE
The next
thing we have planned is a Liberation School class, Self-Defense
in the Workplace. It will be about day to day issues in the workplace,
negotiations and government intervention. The class will be on Sunday
afternoons, starting March 4th, for 6 weeks. Call the office later
in the month, to find out where it will be held.
If you are
interested in working with DARE, call the office, too. We are open
to new people and our group has a lot to offer working women fighting
job discrimination.
|
