Baroness May Blood tells Midlands Region event how she put men in their place
November 10 2015Baroness May Blood has told how the title for her autobiography “Watch My Lips I’m Speaking” came from a comment she made after being ignored by men on trade union committees in her early days as a union official.
Addressing a conference organised by the Midlands womens regional committee in Birmingham on Tuesday, Baroness Blood explained how throughout her life she had been presented with a series of doors offering different opportunities. “It was a case of deciding whether to go through the door or not,” said Baroness Blood.
The Labourpeer outlined how she had left school at 14, going to work in the local mill, where she eventually became a shop steward. “The trade union opened up the door onto a male dominated world,” said May, whose mill workplace was made up of 88 women and two male workers. “The trade union taught me to negotiate and work with people.”
May declared that she was not a supporter of quotas. “I don’t believe in quotas, women must be there in their own right, if I’m not there in my own right I don’t want to be there,” said May, who quipped that she regarded a committee made up of 20 men and herself as equal.
She explained how the negotiating skills she learned as a trade unionist came in useful when the Troubles erupted in Northern Ireland. Her own family were burnt out of their house, after standing up for Catholics. “At the height of the Troubles in the 1980s and 90s women held Northern Ireland together. They held the families together, with the man often in prison. They’d be doing two jobs,” said May, who became involved in community work, which led onto work helping found the Womens Coalition and eventually being nominated to become a member ofthe House of Lords.
Sandra Durkhin, tutor and member of PCS, highlighted the efforts of government to ferment an intergenerational conflict between the young and old. “They know pensioners vote and often vote Tory,” said Sandra, who told how the younger generation are getting hit by high unemployment rates and low pay. “Women and the young are more likely to be on zero hours contracts and be part time,” said Sandra, who quoted a TUC report titled Young against Old, which found the division to be class based rather than intergenerational. “When the TUC started to look it found that most of the wealth was held by a few people, this was common across the generations,” said Sandra.
“One of the reasons older people may seem wealthier is because their wealth is in their houses. There is also if someone is older they will have had more time to save money, said Sandra, who believes she is a member of the last generation that can say it is better off than its parents.
Sandra called for employers to pay the living wage, for something to be done about student debt and the provision of affordable homes.
She highlighted the ongoing inequality still operating in the workplace, with women in work paid 80p for every £1 a man is paid. “Women are more likely to be lower paid, on zero hours contracts and have lesser pensions,” said Sandra, who also highlighted how the moving up of the state retirement age hit women particularly hard. “The majority of carers are women, they have often taken on care responsibilities in the belief they will get the state pension at 60,” she said.
Katie Dunning, Womens Advisory Committee member and West London area health and safety rep, provided a comprehensive account of women’s struggle over the past 150 years in the postal industry.
She told of the early discrimination around the turn of the 19th century that saw women who did work being seen as neglecting their roles as mothers and wives.
Katie told how in 1939, Jenny Duncan, of the Union of Postal Workers, accused the men at the conference of being fascist and called for the marriage bar to be raised.
“It is important to know where we have come from, the history and the struggle we’ve had,” said Katie, who chronicled the growth of female CWU representation over recent years, which saw the formation of the Womens Committee in the 1990s and the Womens Talk magazine.
There was a short Dying to Work video shown which told the story of a woman, who having contracted terminal cancer, was effectively being managed out of the business where she worked.
The campaign is seeking to change the law, so that employers cannot end a worker’s employment because they get a terminal condition.
The changes sought would see those terminally ill being covered by protected rights and protecting death in service benefits.
Sandra Durkhin, tutor and member of PCS, highlighted the efforts of government to ferment an intergenerational conflict between the young and old. “They know pensioners vote and often vote Tory,” said Sandra, who told how younger generation are getting hit by high unemployment rates and low pay. “Women and the young are more likely to be on zero hours contracts and be part time,” said Sandra, who quoted a TUC report titled Young against Old, which found the division to be class based rather than intergenerational. “When the TUC started to look it found that most of the wealth was held by a few people, this was common across the generations,” said Sandra.
“One of the reasons older people may seem wealthier is because their wealth is in their houses. There is also if someone is older they will have had more time to save money, said Sandra, who believes she is a member of the last generation that can say it is better off than its parents.
Sandra called for employers to pay the living wage, for something to be done about student debt and the provision of affordable homes.
She highlighted the ongoing inequality still operating in the workplace, with women in work paid 80p for every £1 a man is paid. “Women are more likely to be lower paid, on zero hours contracts and have lesser pensions,” said Sandra, who also highlighted how the moving up of the state retirement age hit women particularly hard. “The majority of carers are women, they have often taken on care responsibilities in the belief they will get the state pension at 60.