A study of migrant women / in melbourne industry

PREFACE/ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

On 18th December 1972 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming 1975 as International Women’s Year (IWY). This resolution stressed that 1975 should be used to “promote equality between women and men and ensure the full integration of women in the total development effort”.

In Australia a National Advisory Committee was established and the objectives and strategies were outlined in International Women’s Year: Priorities and Considerations (1975). In essence a framework was set up which aimed to obtain (i) attitudinal changes, (ii) changes in areas of discrimination and suffering and (iii) changes to enable all women the opportunity to reach their creative potential.

In regard to these aims it was apparent that migrant women, who formed an increasing proportion of the populace of Australia and compared to other women were over represented as process workers or labourers in Australian industries, were among the most discriminated women in our society. Migrant women, particularly from non-English speaking countries, had perhaps the most to gain from I.W.Y but because of their socio-cultural isolation were unlikely to know of its existence let alone use the year as an opportunity to articulate their situation.

It is within this broad context that a project was developed by the Centre for Urban Research and Action. This project was to research the situation of migrant women workers in industry and to attempt to develop strategies which would enable these women to organize and come together so that they themselves could articulate their situation, their grievances, their needs and requirements. Then migrant women might begin to participate in decision-making processes that is necessary if they are to receive greater justice and dignity in their everyday working lives. Only then would IWY mean anything to migrant women.

This research Report, essentially a data Report, is one aspect of the total project. There is practically no information of the social situation of any factory workers on shop floors in Australian industry and certainly none on the situation of migrant women workers in factories, mainly because access to factories is difficult and time consuming and because talking to migrant workers in their own languages requires the use of interpreters who have similar socio-cultural backgrounds to the workers. In this study we were able to overcome these difficulties and this Report is intended to make the considerable amount of information that we collected available.

More interpretative and analytical reports will be published later as the issues raised in this Report and the suggested strategies for social change are debated.

Throughout the Report the term ‘migrant women’ refers to women of non-Anglo-Saxon origin. The majority of these women are of Southern European origin but also include some women front Northern and Eastern European countries, from Turkey, from Middle Eastern countries and some South American countries; most cannot speak English.

As the work described in this Report was largely exploratory, it has depended upon the help and support of many individuals and organizations. We would sincerely like to thank everyone who has contributed their time, resources, knowledge and interest to the project.

The project was financed by a grant from the Australian government as administered by the National Advisory Committee and the Secretariat for International Women’s Year. We would like to thank the members of these committees. Ms. Elizabeth Reid in particular gave great help in the initial stages of the project and her support throughout has been greatly appreciated.

The Presbyterian and Methodist Churches also gave financial assistance and expressed their support through concern with the social issues raised by this study.

Many ethnic organizations provided support services and personnel on which much of the total project depended. Organisations that gave particular support were the Federation of Italian Immigrant Workers and their Families – FILEF (Cathy Angelone and Giovanni Sgro); the Spanish Workers’ Commission; the Australian-Turkish Association (Recep Alacus); the Australian-Greek Welfare Society; the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria and the Migrant Workers’ Conference Committee. We thank all these organizations. Not only did they provide interpreting and translation services but they also provided a network that could be utilized to help assist individuals who had approached us in our visits to factories with queries regarding welfare, education, legal and health matters.

The project was also dependent on the support of unions and their representatives. In this regard we would like to especially acknowledge the co-operation given by the Amalgamated Meatworkers Union (particularly Wally Curren and Vera Kent); the Metalworkers Union (Jim Roulsten; John Halfpenny and Jim O’Neil); the Food Preservers Union (Tom Ryan and Len Peacock); the Clothing Trade Union (Eric Austen, Con George, Joe Caputo) and the Electrical Trade Union (Charlie Faure and Phil Flaherty).

All of these unions not only assisted our work by helping arrange entry to factories and use of their personnel and facilities but also showed genuine interest in using the findings and results of the research as it progressed.

We thank those factory employers, administrators and managers who allowed us access to their factories and gave up their time to talk with us. In this regard we also thank
the Australian government for access to government factories and to their personnel for their assistance.

Many persons have been involved in the production of this report. The research was developed and carried out by Arthur Faulkner, Lilian liic, Roger Mitchell, Toula Nikalaou, Maria Pozos, and Des Storer. This Report was written by Des Storer with the exception of Chapter Five which was written by Roger Mitchell. These drafts were added to, corrected, criticised by the entire research team as well as other members of the Centre for Urban Research and Action. Denise Major typed all drafts. She, Julie Dunham and Soula Petropoulos organised and carried out the printing of the report. Particular editorial assistance was given by Renate Howe, Alan Matheson and Kaye Hargreaves.

Finally, and most importantly, this report is only possible because of the willingness of thousands of migrant women workers to talk to us, to discuss their views, and tell us their needs. We are sincerely indebted to all these women, not only for the amount of time they gave us but also for their enthusiasm and encouragement in developing the project.

We intended that the research process should be used to stimulate debate and action. We encouraged migrant women to attend conferences and discussions, to contact ethnic organizations and their unions and to “use us” in any ways they thought fit. However, we have, as a research group, received more from these migrant women that we have given. We hope that this Report, together with our involvement in supporting recent activities such asthe establishment of a migrant trades union resource centre, will help rectify this situation to some degree. In other words, this Report and the activity initiated by the project might be one small contribution to help migrant women workers to gain the confidence to obtain a more just situation in their homes, their ethnic communities, the industries that employ them and in Australian society generally.

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