1972 Nine to Five Formed to Organize Office Workers

In 1972, an organization called Nine to Five was formed in order to recruit unorganized female office workers. “Nine to Five raised important issues of pay equity, respect, dignity, and the dangers of office work, and helped spawn a new union of office workers, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 925.” Female office workers in the Commonwealth had previously been subject to pay discrimination, disrespectful treatment, and sexual harassment. Union representation, with the help of Nine to Five, helped bring an end to those practices.

Later, Nine to Five took on a new issue in workplace safety. They joined with Donald Wightman, UWUA Local 369 President and Joseph Faherty, President of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO in order to seek legislation “to protect clerical workers from radiation and other hazards from video-display terminals.”