Audrey White (activist)

Last updated

Audrey White was a British shopworker whose activism led to breakthrough legislation on sexual harassment in the United Kingdom. Her activism also drew attention to the use of legislation banning picketing and the use of strip searching by the police. [1]

Contents

Biography

In 1983, White was working as the manager of the Lady at Lord John’s clothing store at Liverpool. An area manager sexually harassed four women in her team. [2] After she filed a complaint and protested, White was fired. [2] [3] Her supervisor brought in the police to physically evict her from work. White, however, was a member of the TWGU (now Unite), and this union attempted to negotiate with her employers. The owners of Lady at Lord John, however, refused so White and her union organized a picket in front of the shop. [4]

Protest

According to White, the company first fired her over the phone and her union advised her to keep showing up to the workplace until the termination of her work was given in writing. [5] The store manager then summoned the police to arrest her for refusing to leave work. [5] Together with union members, White started picketing in front of the store and their protest went on for five weeks. As days passed, it generated more interest and attracted more protesters such as dockers, car workers, staff from unemployed centres, and local activists. [2] The protesters urged for a public boycott. They also started holding pickets at the Lady at Lord John’s clothing stores in Manchester and London. [5] When these happened, the company relented, paid White her lost earnings, and reinstated her into her old job. Her experience was later adapted into a film called, Business as Usual. [6]

White became a national figure, campaigning against sexual harassment in the workplace. The TUC credited the protest and her activism as one of the precursors of a later amendment to the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975, where the legal definition of harassment was set out in law. [1] [2] The strike also contributed to the discourse of related issues involving political activists such as the law against picketing and the police's use of strip searching. [1]

White is known as one of the prominent supporters of the Militant tendency, Socialist Appeal's predecessor. In 2022, White was expelled from UK's Labour Party for confronting Sir Keir Starmer, accusing him of right-wing policies as well as his purge of left-wing members. [6] During this period, she was the secretary of Merseyside Pensioners Association. The incident was captured on video and went viral online. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual harassment</span> Unwanted sexual attention or advances

Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment can be physical and/or a demand or request for sexual favors, making sexually coloured remarks, showing pornography, and any other unwelcome physical, verbal, or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature, verbal. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions from verbal transgressions to sexual abuse or assault. Harassment can occur in many different social settings such as the workplace, the home, school, or religious institutions. Harassers or victims can be of any gender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Picketing</span> Form of protest, usually labor action

Picketing is a form of protest in which people congregate outside a place of work or location where an event is taking place. Often, this is done in an attempt to dissuade others from going in, but it can also be done to draw public attention to a cause. Picketers normally endeavor to be non-violent. It can have a number of aims but is generally to put pressure on the party targeted to meet particular demands or cease operations. This pressure is achieved by harming the business through loss of customers and negative publicity, or by discouraging or preventing workers or customers from entering the site and thereby preventing the business from operating normally.

<i>Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Co.</i> U.S. class-action sexual harassment lawsuit

Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Co., 130 F.3d 1287, was the first class-action sexual harassment lawsuit in the United States. It was filed in 1988 on behalf of Lois Jenson and other female workers at the Eveleth Taconite mine in Eveleth, Minnesota on the state's northern Mesabi Range, which is part of the Iron Range.

The Grunwick dispute was a British industrial dispute involving trade union recognition at the Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories in Chapter Road, Dollis Hill in the London suburb of Willesden, that led to a two-year strike between 1976 and 1978.

<i>Business as Usual</i> (film) 1988 film by Lezli-An Barrett

Business as Usual is a 1988 drama film written and directed by Lezli-An Barrett. It stars Glenda Jackson and John Thaw. The story is based on the real-life case of Audrey White, a manager at a chain of Lady at Lord John boutiques who was fired from her job after complaining about sexual harassment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keir Starmer</span> Leader of the Opposition of the United Kingdom since 2020

Sir Keir Rodney Starmer is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras since 2015. He was previously Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jenny Chapman</span> British Labour politician

Jennifer Chapman, Baroness Chapman of Darlington is a British politician serving as a Member of the House of Lords since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, she served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Darlington from 2010 to 2019.

Workplace harassment is the belittling or threatening behavior directed at an individual worker or a group of workers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angela Rayner</span> British politician (born 1980)

Angela Rayner is a British politician serving as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party since 2020 and Shadow Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities since 2023. Rayner has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashton-under-Lyne since 2015. She ideologically identifies as a socialist and as being part of Labour's soft left.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rebecca Long-Bailey</span> British Labour Party politician

Rebecca Roseanne Long-Bailey is a British politician and a solicitor serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Salford and Eccles since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, Long-Bailey served in the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2016 to 2017, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 2017 to 2020 and Shadow Secretary of State for Education in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lord John</span> Former British fashion retailer

Lord John was a British men's fashion retailer, which opened its first store at 43 Carnaby Street, London, at the corner with Ganton Street, in 1963.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Hill (British politician)</span> British politician (born 1963)

Michael Robert Hill is a former British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 2017 until his resignation in 2021.

The 2018 Google walkouts occurred on November 1, 2018 at approximately 11 am. The walkout had a large number of participants. The employees demanded five concrete changes from the company: an end to forced arbitration; a commitment to end pay inequality; a transparent sexual harassment report; an inclusive process for reporting sexual misconduct; and elevate the Chief of Diversity to answer directly to the CEO and create an Employee Representative. A majority of the known organizers have left the company since the walkout and many continue to voice their concerns. Google agreed to end forced arbitration and create a private report of sexual assault, but has not provided any further details about the other demands.

Tensions between the multinational technology company Google and its workers escalated in 2018 and 2019 as staff protested company decisions on a censored search engine for China, a military drone artificial intelligence, and internal sexual harassment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Tarry</span> British Labour politician, MP for Ilford South

Samuel Peter Tarry is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ilford South since 2019. He is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group parliamentary caucus. On 10 October 2022 he was deselected by the Ilford South Constituency Labour Party as its candidate for the next election. He remains an active member of Parliament representing the Labour Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shadow Cabinet of Keir Starmer</span> Shadow Cabinet of the United Kingdom since 2020

Keir Starmer became Leader of the Opposition in the United Kingdom after being elected as Leader of the Labour Party on 4 April 2020. He appointed his Shadow Cabinet on 5 and 6 April. Starmer has reshuffled his Shadow Cabinet five times: in June 2020, May 2021, June 2021, November 2021 and September 2023.

A by-election for the House of Commons constituency of Hartlepool in the former county of Cleveland, England, was held on 6 May 2021. The by-election was triggered following the resignation of Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Mike Hill, who resigned over allegations of sexual harassment. It was held on 6 May 2021 alongside elections to the Borough Council, Tees Valley Mayor, and Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner.

The #MeToo movement emerged in China shortly after it originated in the United States. In mainland China, online MeToo posts were slowed by government censorship. On Weibo, #Metoo and #MetooinChina were both blocked for a period of time. To avoid the censorship, Chinese women using the #MeToo hashtag on social media began using bunny and bowl-of-rice emojis; "rice bunny" is pronounced mi-tu in Chinese. Feminist activist Xiao Qiqi originated the use of rice-bunny emojis for the movement. Another alternative is “River Crab” which indicates censorship. Generally, the #Metoo movement was only accessible to elite women and urban women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Smith (trade unionist)</span> Scottish trade union leader

Gary Smith is a Scottish trade union leader.

The 2022 BT Group strikes were an industrial dispute between the telecommunications provider BT and members of the Communication Workers Union over pay amongst the backdrop of the UK cost of living crisis. The strike action was taken by CWU members working for BT group's communications infrastructure subsidiary Openreach alongside those employed at the company's call centres.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Hyland, Bernadette (2017-03-07). "The woman who paved the way for anti-sexual harassment law". Morning Star. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  2. 1 2 3 4 tuc150 (2018-01-04). "Audrey White". TUC 150 Stories. Retrieved 2023-05-31.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ↑ Spare Rib. London: Spare Ribs Limited. 1983. p. 14.
  4. ↑ Denham, Sue (2023-02-25). "Business as usual: the struggle against sexual harassment at work" . Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  5. 1 2 3 tuc150 (2018-01-04). "Audrey White". TUC 150 Stories. Retrieved 2023-09-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. 1 2 3 Tiernan, Laura (2022-08-03). "UK Labour Party expels Audrey White after confrontation with Sir Keir Starmer". World Socialist Web Site. Retrieved 2023-09-21.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.