Made in Dagenham hails the Ford strike of ‘68 as a victory for women’s rights – but it was 18 years before the factory actually gave the workers what they wanted. Anna Silverman meets the sewing machinists who downed tools in 1984
“With greatest respect to whoever wrote Made in Dagenham, they’ve made a complete hash of it. The real story happened 26 years later – the second strike was far more important and did a lot more for women.”
These are the words of 77-year-old Jim McDermott, who worked at Dagenham’s Ford plant for 23 years.
He’s referring to the strikes of 1984 that saw sewing machinists pick up their placards and strike for recognition of their skills.
Two decades earlier in 1968, women at the plant downed tools for the same reason. It was this struggle that ended up forming the basis of the blockbuster film and musical.
But Jim believes the story, which hit the West End earlier this month, glosses over the strike that made the real impact.
Before 1984, women machinists who sewed the car seat covers at Ford’s were paid on the unskilled “B” grade despite the training they had to complete to get jobs.
Although the result of the 1968 strike was the passing of the Equal Pay Act in 1970, it was unsuccessful in effecting change at Ford itself, and Jim recalled how discontent among the women continued for years afterwards.
“People don’t remember the 1984 strike because it hasn’t been commercialised,” he said.
“But the 1984 strikers were pioneers.”
One of those pioneers is Pamela Brown, now 60, who was a machinist at the plant for 22 years.
Pamela stood on the picket line every night for seven weeks during a strike that eventually saw machinists recognised as skilled “C” grade workers.
“The first strikers’ banners read ‘recognition of skills’, which is what we got years later,” said Pamela, of Romford.
“From the film it seemed like that was the only strike, but it didn’t solve problems.
“It cost another strike to sort out what we wanted. That all got lost along the way, though.
“The film company invited us to tell our story but they ended up only concentrating on the 1968 strikes. That’s annoying because everyone benefited from our strike.
“They were only out for about a week. We were out there for seven.”
Dora Challingsworth, 76, another picketer in the 1984 strike, thought the film and play were “absolutely awful”.
“They’re treating it like a comedy and it really wasn’t,” she said.
After Dora, of Goring Road, Dagenham, and the other women finally saw their skills recognised they were also entitled to better severance packages and holiday pay.
Dora said: “We actually got what the 1968 women were fighting for but we got no credit for it.
“The musical should have focused on the later strikes – it’s nothing like the true story.”
Jim, of Goresbrook Road, Dagenham, added: “I saw the film against my better judgment. It doesn’t portray the true essence. It’s there to make money.
“When I was a shop steward in 1984 the women were whining about not being recognised for their skill. I told them to do something about it.
“Only 16 machinists went out there for the lot of them but they actually got the recognition everyone had been fighting for.”
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