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Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm

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Jenny Kaplan and this is Womanica.

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This month, we're talking about workers, women who

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fought for labor rights and shaped the way we do

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business today. They advocated

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and innovated to make the office wherever

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it is, a more equitable place. Today

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we're talking about one of the first class action labor

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victories in America and the woman behind

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the suit. Let's talk about

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Florence Saint John. In

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nineteen twenty eight, Florence walked into the

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Old's Motorwork Factory in Lansing,

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Michigan for her first day. The

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factory, a division of General Motors,

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housed large machines that made Oldsmobile

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car parts. Florence

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was a thirty two year old mother of three tasked

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with operating the heavy machinery. She

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was one of three hundred workers in the factory

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and one of thirty women. For

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years, she spent her hours cutting steel,

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welding, and dragging around heavy car parts.

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Florence and the other women and felt a sense of respect

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in the factory. They did

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all the same work as the men and were treated

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the same too, or so they thought.

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One day, Florence and some other workers were playing

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paycheck poker, betting their paper checks

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in the game, and Florence

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began to notice a pattern. The

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men on the same shifts as the women, Men

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with less seniority than the women, were

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making more money than the women they were playing.

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In some cases, men made fifteen to twenty

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dollars more than their female coworkers.

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Florence knew that this was not fair. The

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women were just as strong and skilled as

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the men, They met the same quotas,

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and they deserved the same pay. Florence

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enlisted the help of her union representative, Forrest

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Brown, to negotiate on behalf of the women.

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To no avail, the managers

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at General Motors would not change the wages.

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If anything, their true colors showed.

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Some managers said they'd prefer not to have any

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women workers on the floor in the first place. At

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the time, Michigan law made it a misdemeanor

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to discriminate in any way in the payment of

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wages between sexes. So

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the next year, when Forest Brown took a job

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with the Michigan Department of Labor and Industry,

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he applied new pressure to GM. He

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investigated the factory's in equities, knowing

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that they were violating that statute. Unfortunately,

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for Florence and the rest of the women, it was not

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the change they hoped for. GM

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created a women's division that

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gave the women remedial tasks, though

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they still ended up doing their more labor

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intensive tasks too.

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Now that the women's work was officially

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separated from the men's forest

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Brown's investigation ended. Many

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women, fed up with the low wages, quit

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in nineteen thirty eight, ten years into working

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at GM, Florence decided to take action.

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She called well known trial attorneys Bernard

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Pierce and Joseph Plank to form a legal

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plan. The lawyers gathered twenty

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eight claims from other women, transferred

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them to Florence, and filed a lawsuit against

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General Motors.

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This maneuver is similar to today's

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class action lawsuit, which allows one

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or more plaintiffs to file a lawsuit on behalf

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of a larger group. The

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suit was unprecedented. It

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was the first time women banded together to

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legally demand lost wages. The

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lawsuit dragged on for three years before

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the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that Florence

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even had standing for the lawsuit. The

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trial began on June second, nineteen forty

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one. Over the course of six

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weeks, the trial reviewed more than ten thousand

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exhibits and about seventy witness testimonies.

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While some of the male workers said the women

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were not as strong or versatile as the men,

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others admitted that the women worked alongside

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them on heavier operations, but

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General Motors still argued there was no proof

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that the women were paid less. Finally,

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Florence's lawyer convinced the judge that GM

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needed to present their payroll records. Once

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the paychecks for men and women and the stark

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difference between them were reviewed, the

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judge ruled in favor of the women. GM

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was ordered to pay fifty five thousand, six hundred

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and ninety dollars to Florence and the twenty eight

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other women. Today that

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be the equivalent of three quarters of a million

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dollars. Thanks

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in part to Florence's court victory, women

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working at the GM factory were now entitled

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to equal pay. Her

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case had large ramifications as well.

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Two women in the Department of Labour's Women's

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Bureau convinced the War Labor Board to

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equalize pay rates between men and women,

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citing Florence's case. As proof of the necessity

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of equal pay, and

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Florence inspired other wage discrimination

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lawsuits. Over the next

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two decades, twenty one states passed

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wage equity bills, then

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in nineteen sixty three, the US

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passed the Equal Pay Act. However,

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only two of those state laws provided groundwork

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for women to sue for equal pay if the rights

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were violated by an employer, and

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at the time, employers and union leaders

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alike saw the courts as a threat to their respective

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power in the workplace, so

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they lobbied against many of these equal pay laws.

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While Florence's win was significant to Michigan,

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her lawsuit was largely forgotten in history.

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Florence Saint John died on December twenty

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first, nineteen seventy. Almost

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fifty years later, her case against General

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Motors was repopularized by a Stanford

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Law school professor while he was tracing

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the origins of employee class action lawsuits.

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The rediscovered suit shows that despite

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Florence's victory, the fight for equal

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pay still has a long way to go. In

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America, all

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month, We're Talking about Workers. For more information,

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find us on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica

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Podcast special thanks to

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Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co creator.

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Talk to you tomorrow.