THE FOUNDERS of 9to5 were originally wary of traditional union organizing, since unions historically had neglected women office workers and seemed to have a more cumbersome, less effective method of organizing than 9to5. But group organizers say their anti-union feeling has changed, since it has become apparent that only unions have the power to negotiate about conditions in the workplace. So in 1975, 9to5 helped set up Local 925 of the International Service Employees Union to represent Boston office workers. While the two organizations are careful to remain autonomous, each clearly benefits from the work of the other.
Successful as the tatics of publicity and pressure have been, 9to5 often finds itself up against another enemy--the inefficiency of its allies in the federal government.
A Government Accounting Office report in 1976 found that the U.S. Treasury Department, overseer of banking employment practices, had reviewed only one to two per cent of the 16,500 financial institutions required to comply with affirmative action regulations in the past ten years. In the case of those banks that were investigated and found "not in compliance," the Treasury had consistently failed to take action, relying simply on public relations and voluntary compliance.
At the prodding of 9to5, the Treasury investigated New England Merchants National Bank, and found the bank not in compliance. While the Treasury cooled its heels, 9to5 picketed the bank and sent staff member Janet Selcer to Washington to testify before the Senate Banking Committee in hearings on affirmative action in August, 1976. In the end, the committee agreed with Sen. William Proxmire (D.-Wisc.): "The Treasury program is about as effective as a butterfly's hiccup in a typhoon."
Not surprisingly, no company willingly relinquishes its antediluvian employment practices. There is almost always enough money for a good fight, maybe even a little harassment. When 9to5 got Massachusetts Attorney General Francis X. Bellotti to sue three Boston publishing houses for unfair employment practices, one firm tried to subpoena 9to5's membership records. Although the suit was bound to fail, the company must have realized that the expense of a lawyer would hurt.
In four years 9to5 has done a lot. In addition to the victories and half-victories already mentioned, it has helped prevent Department of Labor revisions that would have weakened federal affirmative action regulations. It has gotten state legislation passed that will prevent New England Telephone Company from including its lobbying expenses (in particular, expenses for lobbying against legislation for improving maternity benefits) in estimates of the rate base. It has introduced legislation to include temporary employment agencies under existing state regulations for regular agencies, and has pressured the state secretary to stop illegal lobbying by agencies opposed to the bill. It has also trained representatives of 23 universities in organizing skills, legal rights and affirmative action law.
But in the particular Augean stable that 9to5 organizers have taken on, the muck lies deep. Change is slow in coming. The winner of 9to5's "Pettiest Office Procedures Contest" last fall was a man who had his secretary sew up a rip in the seat of his pants while he was in them. ("Men's egos are bigger today," he later explained to The Boston Globe. "Men want that little bit of security that a good secretary provides.") Second prize went to a store manager who asked his clerks to dress up as bumble bees to attract customers into his store. A similar competition in Cleveland turned up a guy who sent his secretary out to buy a negligee for his mistress, while several New York secretaries had to see that their bosses' toupees were cleaned and styled.
No one at 9to5 talks about the group's victories without giving equal time to how much more there is left to do.
Take Bea Leaguered, for example, a mild-mannered office worker and the heroine of a skit put on by "The 9to5 Players" at a fund-raiser in Boston last week. She is oppressed again and again by wicked bosses. One day her friends take pity on her and present her with a membership in 9to5. Phoenix-like, she rises up out of the typing pool to defeat one discriminatory employer after another--Macho Mutual Insurance Company, Arrogant Women-Proof Publishers, First Bigoted Bank of Boston, Neanderthal University. Will the work of the noble Ms. Leaguered ever be done?