The Wollongong Jobs for Women Campaign Shows the Power of Working-Class Solidarity
In Wollongong in the 1980s, four young socialist activists founded the Jobs for Women campaign to take on the mighty Port Kembla steelworks, demanding equal employment rights. The solidarity they built achieved a historic victory that reverberated across Australia.
A group of women unites to protest over the discriminatory policies at Port Kembla steelworks on March 01, 1983, in Wollongong, Australia. (Peter Kevin Solness/Fairfax Media via Getty Images).
“The steelworks just dominated the place,” says Lou-anne, a protagonist in the new documentary Women of Steel (2020), directed by Robynne Murphy and produced by the Jobs for Women Film Producers Group.
Lou-anne is referring to the Port Kembla steelworks. Owned by BHP/AIS, during the 1980s, it was the major employer in Wollongong. These steelworks were also the site of the historic antidiscrimination campaign documented in Women of Steel.
Lou-anne arrived in Wollongong in 1980, accompanied by three other young socialists: Robynne (the film’s director), Louise, and Diana. Their goal was to organize women workers in heavy industry. As they soon discovered, the Port Kembla steelworks’ domination wasn’t just economic — it was visible across the whole city. “With the steam coming out . . . it was like a sort of inferno.”
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