• Munitions workers at George Kent's during World War One.

The Luton No 2 branch of the National Federation of Women Workers launched out with their first public venture in the form of a concert and dance at the Winter Assembly Hall on Friday evening [March 2nd, 1917].

This branch was only formed among the girls who are engaged on men's work - some skilled and others semi-skilled - in the motor department of the Vauxhall works as recently as November 18th, but it now numbers two-thirds of the women workers engaged in this particular department, and they have every reason to be satisfied with the success achieved for their members in the way of improving wages. Already a rise of three shillings per week in wages has been secured, and negotiations are now on foot for a further recognition of the women who are engaged on certain classes of work.

Miss Haworth, one of the organisers of the Federation, intimated that her visit to Luton was for the purpose of carrying out a double errand, because this was not the first branch that had been formed in the town, and while anxious to speak to the members of the No 2 branch, she also wanted to make inquiries and see what had become of the original branch formed at Messrs Kent's works.

It seemed rather strange that, just as one branch was getting energetic and active, another should be dying out, because everybody in the engineering trade must realise that if the women as well as the men wanted decent conditions of work they would have to become trade unionists and make their trade organisations stronger than ever before.

It was a noteworthy fact that the engineering industry was practically the only one in which women had so far been able to claim and get a man's rate of wage for the woman when she was engaged upon a man's work. A demand of this description had been put in for the members of the Federation employed at the Vauxhall works.

They had asked that every woman employed on a work of a class customarily done by a skilled man should be paid the skilled man's rate, and that women employed on work of a class customarily done by a semi-skilled man, or on work of a specially laborious or responsible nature, should receive the minimum time rate of 7d per hour for a 48-hour working week.

In no instance yet had they been able to get an award for the full 7d, but they were getting a rate of 6½d per hour, which was an increase of three-halfpence an hour on the old rate. So far, a reply tothat demand had not been received from Vauxhall, but it did not much matter whether a reply was received or not, because the customary number of days had passed they had merely to send in another letter reminding the firm that no reply had been received, and if there was no reply to that the case went before the special arbitration Tribunal, and they felt no doubt hat the result would be just as beneficial to the members as in the other cases they had fought during the past fortnight.

[The Luton Reporter: Monday, March 5th, 1917]