- AAAB4010
- Item
- 1979-06-11 [date recorded]
SUPPLIED TITLE OF TAPE(S): Anne Marshall : garment industry conditions in Vancouver - the ILGWU RECORDED: Vancouver (B.C.), 1979-06-11 SUMMARY: TRACK 1: Anne Marshall was born in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1907. At the age of 14, she left there to come to BC and find work after her father died. She worked as a waitress and became sympathetic to trade unionism in 1924, during the Longshoremen's strike, through her contact with strike supporters at work. She then became a babysitter for the owner of Sweet 16 dress shops. He taught her to sew, and she began to work in ladies' ready-to-wear. She married in 1928 and stayed home until WWII when she re-entered the workforce. The organization of the industry had begun by then. Working at Jantzen, she was exposed to the Bideau piecework system for the first time, and became angered by the conditions which they imposed. She was laid off, but in the meantime was approached by the unions to organize the shop. The VTLC was spearheading the campaign at that time. The workers were organized into the United Garment Workers. Later she helped to lead the local over to the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union which she felt had better shops. TRACK 2: She became a full-time organizer for the ILGWU in 1946/47 and stayed in that position for 16 years. Central issues in her union were the protection and integration of immigrant workers; equal pensions for women; piecework; racism; wages and hours of work; policing the contract, insuring that people got lunch hours and breaks.