The play begins with a group of women returning to work at John Black's textile mill after a strike, unhappy with the deal negotiated by the union. At a meeting of workers, Gridley (a Communist) states that a union conference in July had rejected the women's request for a shilling-per-hour increase, and had now negotiated separate deals for male and female workers to end the latest strike. On Gridley's advice, the female workers vote to strike. They then march through Leeds, singing a song about "a bob an hour". They then begin to picket other textile mills at Boswell's and Bent's.
