Tyburn
10-04-2010, 10:18 PM
Ford Motors being a United States based company had been subject to something known under Federal Law as The Equal Pay Act, which came into force thanks to Congress in 1963.
Of course...what is very interesting about this law...is that is seems only to effect companies based on US Soil. That at first sounds reasonable. But Ford Motors in the 1960s was an International Company, which meant that it had working plants across the world....and whereas Federal Law applied to Ford Motor employees in America, the same cant be said for Ford Motor Employees outside of the physical boundaries of the United States Soverignty.
This meant that where Ford Motors were forced to pay Male and Female workers doing the same job, or employed by the same company at the same rate of pay...it didnt need to apply this to workers in other countries.
I find this fascinating, because its the first time ive heard of a U.S company effectively getting away with Slave Labour. Worse still, many of those Employees were based in England, where Ford Motors were expanding. During this period of time Ford were enjoying underpaying Women because there was no law passed by a British Parliament to say otherwise...despite the fact that it was enforced on the other side of the Atlantic, Ford Motors must have actively chosen not to pay the same ammount for Labour. Effectively enslaving British Women doing the same job as the Men who were paid more.
Imagine their horror when in order to pay even less, Ford Motors brands Women Labourers at a plant in London as non skilled, and the Women for the first time in English History went on Strike.
Ford Motors naturally did what Big Companies always do, and basically ignored the problem. making idle promises they had no intention of keeping. So the Women decided to go permanently on Strike, and a week later Ford Motors was forced to halt production when surplus supplies ran out
The Counter ballence to the British Government not making these obvious laws about Employment was due to something known as Trade Unions. Now the United States has never seen what Trade Unions can really do, they are mostly a De-Unionized Country, with very little in the way of Employment Law beyond largely vaugue and all encompassing Congressional Statements. Trade Unions in England, these days are very much to Companies, what the Media is to the Government. A huge pressure group. But the Trade Unions of the 1960s were something entirely different. These groups of people were pseudo-political, and moved a great deal of financial wealth from a-b. They deeply encouraged strikes, something that would eventually bring the whole Country to a three day working week during the Winters of Discontent, whereupon afterwards Margaret Thatcher would break their backs, and in so doing distroy whole sections of the workforce, whole industries would dissapear overnight, as she steered the whole country away from the coal industry. Very few large scale powerful Unions survived, although a number are still around, particularly governing the transportation industry.
These Unions were of course mainly socialistic, and mainly male dominated, and had to come to terms with the fact that male breadwinners were forced out of work by what was quickly becoming the best part of a months strike at Ford Motors. As the Factory stopped producing, so to did the Male labour needs
The Americans on the other hand, behind Ford Motors were quick to remind the Government of how big a contribution the motor industry was to the British economy, and how they could of course choose to take their business elsewhere, should the Government think of forcing them into Equal pay...the irony is, that this event in England took place in 1968
nearly FIVE YEARS after Ford had been forced to do exactly the same on their own turf. It is increadibly ironic, dont you think, that an American Company would threaten the British Government for considering applying the SAME LAWS as the Federal Government of its own Nationality? It would appear that there is one thing that stops the American ideology of Freedom...thats when Bondage gives them a better profit. There is no other way to explain the companies actions, considering its standing with Congress had already been determined. Getting things cheaper elsewhere is a good profit builder...but at the expense of women workers?? when the alternative to paying a high cost is effectively slave labour, then from an American point of view, all things considered, it is a moral violation.
The Government caved to pressure after three weeks of industrial action at Ford Motors, and with the wavering support of some Unions, the women were given a pay rise to bring them within ten percent of Equality.
Two years later the British Parliament passed their own Equal Pay Act, and from there, most of Europe were to follow. Ford Motors continued to work in the British Economy despite their threat...but it makes you wonder, what companies are in less developed areas of the world, and what moral boundaries they are crossing in order to make a profit. Some forty years later, with almost no Unions, and with Employment Law still lacking in the United States, one wonders just how far a company is prepared to go, to exceed its profit margine...and when the whole pile of cards that prop up such a business in a marginalized country far from home will crack and bring the whole executive to their knees.
Of course...what is very interesting about this law...is that is seems only to effect companies based on US Soil. That at first sounds reasonable. But Ford Motors in the 1960s was an International Company, which meant that it had working plants across the world....and whereas Federal Law applied to Ford Motor employees in America, the same cant be said for Ford Motor Employees outside of the physical boundaries of the United States Soverignty.
This meant that where Ford Motors were forced to pay Male and Female workers doing the same job, or employed by the same company at the same rate of pay...it didnt need to apply this to workers in other countries.
I find this fascinating, because its the first time ive heard of a U.S company effectively getting away with Slave Labour. Worse still, many of those Employees were based in England, where Ford Motors were expanding. During this period of time Ford were enjoying underpaying Women because there was no law passed by a British Parliament to say otherwise...despite the fact that it was enforced on the other side of the Atlantic, Ford Motors must have actively chosen not to pay the same ammount for Labour. Effectively enslaving British Women doing the same job as the Men who were paid more.
Imagine their horror when in order to pay even less, Ford Motors brands Women Labourers at a plant in London as non skilled, and the Women for the first time in English History went on Strike.
Ford Motors naturally did what Big Companies always do, and basically ignored the problem. making idle promises they had no intention of keeping. So the Women decided to go permanently on Strike, and a week later Ford Motors was forced to halt production when surplus supplies ran out
The Counter ballence to the British Government not making these obvious laws about Employment was due to something known as Trade Unions. Now the United States has never seen what Trade Unions can really do, they are mostly a De-Unionized Country, with very little in the way of Employment Law beyond largely vaugue and all encompassing Congressional Statements. Trade Unions in England, these days are very much to Companies, what the Media is to the Government. A huge pressure group. But the Trade Unions of the 1960s were something entirely different. These groups of people were pseudo-political, and moved a great deal of financial wealth from a-b. They deeply encouraged strikes, something that would eventually bring the whole Country to a three day working week during the Winters of Discontent, whereupon afterwards Margaret Thatcher would break their backs, and in so doing distroy whole sections of the workforce, whole industries would dissapear overnight, as she steered the whole country away from the coal industry. Very few large scale powerful Unions survived, although a number are still around, particularly governing the transportation industry.
These Unions were of course mainly socialistic, and mainly male dominated, and had to come to terms with the fact that male breadwinners were forced out of work by what was quickly becoming the best part of a months strike at Ford Motors. As the Factory stopped producing, so to did the Male labour needs
The Americans on the other hand, behind Ford Motors were quick to remind the Government of how big a contribution the motor industry was to the British economy, and how they could of course choose to take their business elsewhere, should the Government think of forcing them into Equal pay...the irony is, that this event in England took place in 1968
nearly FIVE YEARS after Ford had been forced to do exactly the same on their own turf. It is increadibly ironic, dont you think, that an American Company would threaten the British Government for considering applying the SAME LAWS as the Federal Government of its own Nationality? It would appear that there is one thing that stops the American ideology of Freedom...thats when Bondage gives them a better profit. There is no other way to explain the companies actions, considering its standing with Congress had already been determined. Getting things cheaper elsewhere is a good profit builder...but at the expense of women workers?? when the alternative to paying a high cost is effectively slave labour, then from an American point of view, all things considered, it is a moral violation.
The Government caved to pressure after three weeks of industrial action at Ford Motors, and with the wavering support of some Unions, the women were given a pay rise to bring them within ten percent of Equality.
Two years later the British Parliament passed their own Equal Pay Act, and from there, most of Europe were to follow. Ford Motors continued to work in the British Economy despite their threat...but it makes you wonder, what companies are in less developed areas of the world, and what moral boundaries they are crossing in order to make a profit. Some forty years later, with almost no Unions, and with Employment Law still lacking in the United States, one wonders just how far a company is prepared to go, to exceed its profit margine...and when the whole pile of cards that prop up such a business in a marginalized country far from home will crack and bring the whole executive to their knees.