Ford sewing machinists strike of 1968

The Ford sewing machinists strike of 1968 was a landmark labour-relations dispute in the United Kingdom. It ultimately led to the passing of the Equal Pay Act 1970, the first legislation in the UK aimed at ending pay discrimination between men and women.

Strike action
The strike began on 7 June, 1968, when women sewing machinists at 's plant in  walked out, followed later by the machinists at Ford's. The women made car seat covers and as stock ran out the strike eventually resulted in a halt to all car production.

The Dagenham sewing machinists walked out when, as part of a regrading exercise, they were informed that their jobs were graded in Category B (less skilled production jobs), instead of Category C (more skilled production jobs), and that they would be paid 15% less than the full B rate received by men. At the time it was common practice for companies to pay women less than men, irrespective of the skills involved.

Following the intervention of Barbara Castle, Secretary of State for Employment in 's government, the strike ended three weeks after it began, as a result of a deal that immediately increased their rate of pay to 8% below that of men, rising to the full category B rate the following year. A court of inquiry (under the Industrial Courts Act 1919) was also set up to consider their regrading, although this failed to find in their favour. The women were only regraded into Category C following a further 6 week strike in 1984. .

Impact
The strike was, however, to have an enduring legacy. Spurred on by their example, women trades unionists founded the National Joint Action Campaign Committee for Women’s Equal Rights (NJACCWER), which held an 'equal pay demonstration' attended by 1,000 people in  on 18 May, 1969.

The ultimate result was the passing of the Equal Pay Act 1970, which came into force in 1975 and which did, for the first time, aim to prohibit inequality of treatment between men and women in terms of pay and conditions of employment. In the debate of the bill, the machinists were cited by MP Shirley Summerskill as playing a "very significant part in the history of the struggle for equal pay". Once the UK joined the European Union in 1973, it also became subject to Article 119 of the 1957 Treaty of Rome, which specified that men and women should receive equal pay for equal work.

Popular culture
A film dramatisation of the 1968 strike, Made in Dagenham, was released in 2010.