Canada History Week 2019: Working for the Future

ANNIE BULLER Annie Buller was a union activist who organized support for the communist-led Industrial Union of Needle Trades Workers in the early 1930s. While serving on the union’s executive board, she helped lead a general strike of Toronto dressmakers in 1931.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

MARIE LACOSTE Marie Lacoste was a feminist, social reformer, lecturer, educator and author. She was born at a time when French Canadian life was beginning to change drastically as a result of the Industrial Revolution . She believed that women – especially women who worked in factories – should have access to professional associations. In 1907, she helped establish the Fédération Nationale Saint-Jean Baptiste and its affiliated newspaper, La Bonne Parole .

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

MARIE-ANNE LAPORTE Marie-Anne Laporte was a factory worker, store clerk and labour activist who made significant contributions to the Association Professionnelle des Employées de Magasins. When she passed away in 1929, La Bonne Parole paid homage to her: “What an example for women employed in stores… And how she worked to improve the lot of those who earn their living as she earned hers!”

Courtesy of BAnQ, Centre d’archives de Montréal

THE IMPACT OF WOMEN ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT At the beginning of the 20th century, women mostly worked in the garment, textile, leather and tobacco industries. In response to the draft in 1917, ironworks and transportation equipment factories, which had traditionally hired only men, gave women positions that had until then been considered too physically or technically demanding for the fairer sex. But when the war ended in 1918, most women workers were shown the door. However, it would be incorrect to assume that women were accepting of their situation and did not take action. Between 1919 and 1939, a number of union movements arose and women were at the heart of almost half of all labour disputes, especially in Montreal.