Working Women’s Association 1971 – 1972

By Jean Rands and Jackie Ainsworth

The message of the women’s movement was that “nobody could do it for us”; that we had the skills, passion, competence and ability to organize and fight our own oppression. We determined we needed a democratic, feminist, militant union. A union that would develop new organizing strategies and new demands never yet fought for. We thought it would spark a new working class movement, something like the effect the CIO had in the organization of industrial workers.

In the summer of 1971, the Working Women’s Workshop began planning for the formation of a women’s union. We announced the founding convention for Oct 30, 1971. But there weren’t enough people ready to form a new union. Instead of a new union, we formed the Working Women’s Association. The aims of the new group were basically the same as the Working Women’s Workshop: public educationals, publishing materials about the problems faced by women workers, provide information about unions and support the struggles of organized and unorganized workers.

Over the next year, we leafletted hospitals in support of the fight for equal pay, we picketed Medieval Inn with the striking waitresses, we helped the union organizers at Smitty’s Pancake House and Pizza Patio, we held public meetings at the downtown library on unemployment insurance, lack of job security and lack of quality daycare, we wrote and distributed booklets about women’s work and organized educationals on the history of women workers in BC.

In August 1972, we left the Women’s Centre and opened our own office. We paid the office rent by members’ pledges since most of us were working and those who weren’t working staffed the new office.

By the fall, the WWA had a mailing list of about 150 and there were about 30 activists. Three committees had been set up- department store workers, office workers and restaurant workers. The committees had begun to meet separately from the regular WWA meetings to discuss the specific problems of organizing in each industry.

We held more strategy discussions. These were difficult meetings. We were sick and tired of talking about the same things over and over. Did we plan on being an information group forever? One thing that came out of these meetings was the realization that we still needed to know more about unions – the history of the trade union movement, the differences in unions, the process of unionizing, the labour laws, etc. A series of seminars was planned at which trade unionists sympathetic to our cause would speak.

After the seminars we had plenty of data on how to form a union, how to organize our workplace and of course we knew why we needed one. It was time to put up or shut up.

 

Related Materials

• Workshops for shop stewards presented by CAIMAW (13 April 1973)
• Announcement of LRB certification of SORWUC Local 1 (3 Aug. 1973) signed by Jackie Ainsworth and Helen Potrebenko