These women and many others had been hired only last spring after Ford was forced to comply with the federal government’s equal employment opportunity standards. Having the least seniority, they were among the first to go when Ford laid off 400 stamping plant workers.

All this took its toll on the Women’s Committee. Discussions of resolutions for the 1979 contract negotiations were disrupted.

While the impact of the layoffs has been disorienting, the women see the reestablishment of the committee as necessary to combat Ford’s discrimination and to educate all workers, men and women alike, about the gains they can make by upholding and fighting for women’s equality.

“The conditions we’re facing now—the last to be hired and the first to be laid off, sexual harassment, discrimination in promotions, company refusal to pay pregnancy disability—all this won’t go away if we don’t fight it,” one committee member said. “It will only get worse.”  
 
April 26, 1954
DETROIT—“The 30-hour work week at 40 hours pay now!” was one of the chief slogans raised in the spirited demonstration held here last Tuesday by 500 unemployed members of Dodge Local 3, United Auto Workers, CIO.

Other demands chanted and printed on placards carried by the jobless workers were “We Demand jobs—Not Soup Lines!” “A Public Works Program Now!” “We Demand Our Bonus!” (Local 3 is fighting for the bonus which its unemployed members would be eligible for if they were on the payroll. The company is saving 74 million dollars by having laid off workers, many with 10-20-30 years seniority, a few weeks or days before the eligibility date for the bonus.)

The demonstration was preceded by a meeting of Local 3 unemployed members at their hall at 6 a.m. They have been holding such meetings regularly each week.

From the hall the workers marched to the Dodge plant at 7:30 a.m. where they paraded for an hour, carrying banners, singing union songs, and chanting their demands.

After marching back to their hall, they boarded buses provided by the local and proceeded to City Hall for a demonstration and the presentation of their demands to the Common Council.  
 
 
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