Frances O'Grady on the TUC and suffrage

Two weeks ago, I returned to my home city of Oxford for a special screening of the Suffragette film.

Refreshingly, in the notoriously macho world of film, this is a film produced, written by, directed by, and starring women, and it tells the story of one of the defining moments in women’s ongoing struggle for equality.

It beggars belief that this story of heroism and sacrifice has never been portrayed on the silver screen before.

While many readers may be hazy on the details of the Suffragettes’ struggle, many will be familiar with the names of the best known protagonists such as Emmeline and Sylvia Pankhurst.

When Sylvia led a rally in St Giles in 1912, St John’s College students pelted her with stones and she had to get off her trolley and flee in a cab. Thankfully, she made it away safely.

TV show, Suffragettes Forever! showed how the foundations for the Suffragette movement were laid by working women, such as the match women of East London whose strike over working conditions 125 years ago sent shockwaves throughout Victorian Britain.

Back in 1888, pay at the Bryant and May match factory was as low as four shillings – 20p – for a week of 12-hour days – the equivalent of just £17.40 in today’s money.

Women workers and trade unionists had long been making the case for women’s suffrage: on the streets, at work, in Parliament and within trade unions.

We shouldn’t forget their contribution, nor should we forget the challenges women still face. Yes, we have had the right to vote for almost 100 years, but let’s not kid ourselves that we’ve won all of our battles.

Women still earn almost 20 per cent less on average than men. An analysis by the TUC shows that in Witney more than a quarter of women were below the living wage in 2014.

The Sisters Uncut protest at the London premiere of Suffragette – a protest which was welcomed by the stars of the film on the red carpet – highlighted another way women are being undermined today. Their placards pointed to the devastating impact of cuts to domestic violence services, a crisis which has been highlighted by women’s organisations and by the TUC over recent years.

No doubt the Suffragettes would have approved of the spectacle of a glitzy premiere being disrupted by women taking direct action against injustice. And I am confident that the Suffragettes would also be cheering on the trade union women who are today campaigning against the Trade Union Bill.

Just as the direct action of the Suffragettes was a last resort for women who had been making the case for suffrage for decades to no avail, industrial action is always the last resort after all other avenues of negotiation with employers have failed.

Last year, for example, midwives took strike action for the first time in their 143-year history after the Government refused to honour the one per cent pay rise recommended by their independent pay body.

Their action highlighted why there needs to be power on both ends of the negotiating table. The right to withdraw labour is a fundamental right, just like the right to protest and the right to free speech.

The modern trade union movement, which now has more women members than men, faces one of the biggest challenges in its history in opposing the Trade Union Bill.

The Government’s anti-strike proposals will hit women hardest. Nearly three-quarters of the trade union members working in public services are female.

With their jobs at risk and their right to strike being curtailed, the Suffragettes’ slogan “deeds not words”, is as relevant today as ever.

Frances O’Grady is the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress