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Audrey White was a British shopworker whose activism led to breakthrough legislation on sexual harassment in the United Kingdom. Her activism also drew attention to the use of legislation banning picketing and the use of strip searching by the police.[1]
In 1983, White was working as the manager of the Lady at Lord John’s clothing store at Liverpool. An area manager sexually harassed four women in her team.[2] After she filed a complaint and protested, White was fired.[2][3] Her supervisor brought in the police to physically evict her from work. White, however, was a member of the TWGU (now Unite), and this union attempted to negotiate with her employers. The owners of Lady at Lord John, however, refused so White and her union organized a picket in front of the shop.[4]
Protest
According to White, the company first fired her over the phone and her union advised her to keep showing up to the workplace until the termination of her work was given in writing.[5] The store manager then summoned the police to arrest her for refusing to leave work.[5] Together with union members, White started picketing in front of the store and their protest went on for five weeks. As days passed, it generated more interest and attracted more protesters such as dockers, car workers, staff from unemployed centres, and local activists.[2] The protesters urged for a public boycott. They also started holding pickets at the Lady at Lord John’s clothing stores in Manchester and London.[5] When these happened, the company relented, paid White her lost earnings, and reinstated her into her old job. Her experience was later adapted into a film called, Business as Usual.[6]
White became a national figure, campaigning against sexual harassment in the workplace. The TUC credited the protest and her activism as one of the precursors of a later amendment to the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975, where the legal definition of harassment was set out in law.[1][2] The strike also contributed to the discourse of related issues involving political activists such as the law against picketing and the police's use of strip searching.[1]
White is known as one of the prominent supporters of the Militant tendency, Socialist Appeal's predecessor. In 2022, White was expelled from UK's Labour Party for confronting Sir Keir Starmer, accusing him of right-wing policies as well as his purge of left-wing members.[6] During this period, she was the secretary of Merseyside Pensioners Association. The incident was captured on video and went viral online.[6]
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