Freedom Socialist • Vol. 25, No. 5 • December 2004-January 2005

RADICAL WOMEN

"It was an apprenticeship in class warfare"

An interview with three pioneering tradeswomen

In 1974, the first U.S. affirmative action program to bring women into the electrical trades was established at Seattle City Light, a publicly owned utility. Ten women — Black, white, Chicana, Asian American, lesbian and straight — were hired as Electrical Trades Trainees (ETTs). Three of them — Teri Bach, Megan Cornish and Heidi Durham — were Radical Women members.

1976: These boots were made for class struggle. From left, Megan Cornish, Teri Bach, Heidi Durham.

Their entry was tumultuous. Shortly after being hired, their program coordinator, veteran feminist radical Clara Fraser, was removed in retaliation for her role as a spokesperson for striking City Light employees. A year later, Fraser and then the trainees were fired, but won reinstatement. Bach, Cornish and Durham retired this year after 30 years.

The interview below was conducted by San Francisco unionist Nancy Reiko Kato, Radical Women’s U.S. organizer.

• • •

Kato: Why did you apply for the ETT program?

Durham: I was 21 years old and big and strong and working as a waitress. I had a lot of confidence in my abilities even though I had been told that I couldn’t work as a loader at a trucking firm because I was a woman. The feminist movement was urging us to fight for our rights. Antiwar activists were opposing the carnage in Vietnam. And people of color were refusing to sit at the back of the bus. That’s why I was able to put not only my foot, but my whole body, through the door of opportunity.

Cornish: I worked in an industrial laundry that was hot and miserable in the summer and cold and miserable in the winter. Women had been ghettoized into low-paid jobs and the idea of being part of women breaking into the trades was exciting.

Bach: As a single mother of two, I was a switchboard operator making $2.98 an hour — not enough to support my children. And we knew the ETT program meant more than good wages — we were going to be trailblazers for other women.

Kato: What was it like being the first women in the field?

Durham:In the earliest days, the climate was great because we had the support of our union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 77. Union members had been moralized by the backing they got from the entire City Light workforce during an 11-day walkout.

Bach: It was later, in 1975-76, after the IBEW lost a three-month strike, that the union’s support dwindled. Members were demoralized because they were sold out. Instead of aiming their anger at union officials and management, they turned against us because we had beaten the bosses when they didn’t.

Cornish: We were in a fishbowl and constantly challenged. Some men didn’t believe that women could do the job. After I became a power dispatcher, I heard that one male lineworker responded, "I’m not taking orders from any goddamned female!"

Bach: It was an apprenticeship in class warfare! We learned in the process of fighting to focus on issues, not personalities; to bring the blame home to management. Sometimes women were on management’s side and white men were on our side. Race, sexuality and gender didn’t automatically determine who was right on the issues. We used a class analysis to figure out where people were coming from.

Once, as a way to discredit us and get us to quit, a supposed "anonymous citizen" — really a fink for management — complained that two Black coworkers and I were fondling in the middle of a busy street. We learned how to win grievances and how to get our union to fight for our right to be in the ETT program.

Kato: What were the working conditions like?

Durham: Life was pure hell at that point. No matter what we did, we were never good enough. It was in this atmosphere that I fell 25 feet from a pole and broke my back. I was 24 years old and desperate to prove myself to the men on the crew who would never accept me. Afterwards, the union safety officer said my accident happened because I didn’t listen to the linemen to get the hell out of the trade!

Bach: The day after Heidi fell, some men were saying, "One down, two to go!" [The Radical Women members were the only women in the lineworker apprenticeship.] Each day I was fearful that I wouldn’t make it home that evening. I remember thinking, "If I can survive this, I can survive anything."

Kato: How did you all persevere?

Cornish: We didn’t get isolated. We weren’t the only ones under attack. Men of color were also battling discrimination. And working conditions were bad for everyone. We worked with the union whenever we could, but sometimes we had to go directly to the ranks, and other times we went outside the union for help. Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party helped us develop the tactics for fighting back and enabled us to keep our objectivity.

Durham: It was our socialist feminist politics. We understood who had the power. We had an analysis as to the source of sexism and racism. Responsibility for the harassment lay squarely with management. Solidarity with the other workers was essential. We always fought back against unfair treatment. We embodied the slogan "an injury to one is an injury to all."

Bach: We fought for our principles — a safe workplace, no discrimination, and accountability to the public. We didn’t back down or go over to management’s side. We educated and motivated our union brothers and sisters and tried to organize with them to win battles for all members. It was a challenge, because our union wasn’t used to having women and people of color in it, let alone ones that opened their mouths!

Durham: We heard that our union business representative was calling us RSBs: "Radical Socialist Bitches." We took the offensive by showing up at our union meeting wearing buttons that said "RSB" in big, bold letters and spelled out the acronym. By the time the meeting started, many of the men were wearing our extra RSB buttons!

Kato: What were you able to accomplish?

Bach: I was the first woman to become a journey-level lineworker and journey-level cable splicer. There isn’t a job in the utility they can say a woman can’t do, because we proved that we can. At our union retirement dinner, we were given plaques which read, "Congratulations to IBEW Local 77’s own ‘RSB,’ a true pioneer on behalf of all women in nontraditional trades. We thank you for your union activism, and for your 30 years of service."

Cornish: We changed a lot of attitudes towards women and people of color in the trades. We helped open the door. I retired as the outage dispatcher — the highest position in the utility trades. My coworkers saw me as a good worker, not just a woman worker.

Durham: Seattle City Light has more tradeswomen than any other electrical utility in the nation. Throughout the years, we helped people who wanted to confront discrimination. We did this in spite of how difficult it made our own work situations, because we knew our survival depended on the survival of those who followed in our footsteps.

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