“One hundred percent men's work”

Migros drivers who served in the army during the Second World War were in some cases replaced by women. However, when unemployed drivers protested against their new female competition, Migros promised to revoke these «emergency measures» once the war was over.

At the end of 1944, the Federation of Migros Cooperatives receives a letter from the VHTL trade union. In the letter, the unionised drivers complain that Migros is training female sales assistants to be drivers so that they can drive the sales vans. The men, many of whom are out of work because of the strict petrol rationing, are resentful and demand a statement about the new competition in the job market. Migros answers immediately: it is an “emergency measure”, a “provisional solution due to the war”.
However, Migros is not alone in using women workers while male employees are serving in the army. The postal service engages female employees to deliver the post and the Zurich tram company has female ticket vendors. But the Migros women drivers provoke a “lively conflict”.

The union accuses Migros of paying the female drivers less than the male drivers and demands the same wage for the same work. Migros counters that the wage is fully appropriate for the performance. Unlike the men, the women – even on ‘easy routes’ – have to rely on an assistant: “A woman is not even able to lift the flaps of the sales vans alone, not to mention change a tyre.” The wage received is, however, higher than the average female wage of the time.
The union is particularly annoyed when Migros argues that higher female wages must be passed on to the customer: Die Freie Innerschweizexcitedly claims: “We are talking here only about the principle that a woman should receive the same wage as a man when doing men's work”, and accuses Gottlieb Duttweiler: “He thinks only of the yield and the profit. Exploitation of female employees: the veritable inventor of ‘social capital’ again shows his true colours.”
Three months later, as the end of the war is in sight, the battle with the unions ends. Migros promises the drivers: “After the war, the former situation in favour of male employees will be restored.”