Éva Bíró's (1930–) career as a trade unionist sheds light on activism around women’s industrial work in state socialist Hungary – and its constraints. Rising from the factory floor to the top of the Textile Workers’ Trade Union, Bíró dedicated much of her work to advocating for the rights and well-being of female textile workers in a system that increasingly relied on women’s industrial labour.

Born in 1930 in the town of Békéscsaba, Bíró came from a modest background: her mother worked as a cook, and her stepfather was a teacher. She entered the factory as a teenager, becoming a semi-skilled spinner in a textile mill in the suburbs of Budapest. Her first contact with trade unionism occurred under unusual circumstances when, during a night shift, she was told to hide from the union representative who arrived unexpectedly. By the age of nineteen, Bíró advanced in the factory hierarchy and became a shop steward.

Éva Bíro meeting workers, 1975 (Source: Arcanum Újságok)

Bíró’s trajectory soon took her beyond the shop floor. In the 1950s, she briefly worked as a journalist before becoming a full-time union functionary, focusing on education and advocacy within the Textile Workers’ Trade Union. After completing her training at the college of the National Federation of Trade Unions, she steadily rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the union’s secretary-general in 1971, a position she held until her retirement in 1980.

Throughout her tenure, Bíró sought to address the harsh realities of women’s industrial labour. Administrative duties such as the organisation of cultural events were a part of her job, but she did much more: she visited factories, listened to workers’ concerns, and confronted factory management to demand improvements. Issues she tackled included poor working conditions, wage inequality, and limited opportunities for professional advancement. For Bíró, one of the union’s most notable victories was the reduction of the retirement age for textile workers in 1973, which allowed many women to retire at 50. Asked in a recent interview how this success was achieved, Bíró explained:

Because we always said that the textile industry is the mining industry of the light industry. I worked for 30 years in the textile union [. . .] and one of the guiding threads was to lighten the three shifts. No one was disputing the fact that textile workers had varicose veins all over their legs and that they were exhausted and nervous. That’s why they got the age reduction. They were broken down by the time they finished. And, well, the factory doctors could document that, the condition people retired in.

Bíró operated within the structures of a state socialist regime, where trade unions basically functioned as part of the state apparatus, and sought to use her position to push for meaningful change. She recognized some of the limitations of the system but nonetheless worked collaboratively with ministries, party officials, and other unions to pursue reforms.

As a high-ranking trade union woman, Bíró was also active internationally. She represented Hungarian textile workers in international trade union forums and studied labour practices abroad, using this information to advocate for improvements at home. Her legacy is closely tied to the unique historical and political context of state socialist Hungary, and her work illustrates how labour activism in support of working women functioned within this system. Her story is a reminder that activism can take many forms, even within the rather rigid structures of state socialism, and still challenge inequalities and injustice.

Read more: Interview with Éva Bíró