Working Women’s Workshop 1970 – 1971

By Jackie Ainsworth & Jean Rands

In January 1970 we formed the Working Women’s Workshop as part of Women’s Caucus. The Workshop was made up of mostly students who worked part-time and recognized the critical importance of women workers in winning the demands of the Women’s Caucus. We determined our tasks were research, publications and education of ourselves and women workers. We decided to move off campus to an office downtown to facilitate reaching out to Vancouver women workers. Initially we moved into a tiny, windowless office in the basement of the Labour Temple then, when the Women’s Centre opened on Carrall Street, we moved there.

At the time, the workplace was even more a tyranny than it is today. We were outraged at the discrimination and humiliation that women faced every day at work. There was no human rights legislation, very little labour standards legislation, and no accountability for the Labour Relations Board. In unorganized workplaces, workers could be fired for any reason or no reason at all. Advertisements for jobs were divided between “Help Wanted Male” and “Help Wanted Female.” Sexual harassment was everywhere and seemed to be an acceptable perk for men who worked in areas where women were a majority. We were treated as part of the décor. There were arbitrary, management imposed dress codes. Women were required to wear skirts or dresses or, in a big breakthrough, “pantsuits” so long as the top and the pants were made of the same fabric and the jacket was long enough to cover our butts. We were treated like children.

All of this was discouraging. But at the same time we saw the enormous potential power of working women. Our employers were among the most profitable corporations in the country and their profits depended on our labour. We believed we could change the world if the power of women in the work force could be brought to bear on the problems faced by all women – discrimination in all aspects of social life, denial of our rights to abortion and birth control, lack of quality child care, and of course, equal pay and equal opportunity at work.

We knew that in order to win our demands, we needed economic power. We needed the right to strike. But when we met with union representatives to talk about organizing our workplaces, they looked and acted a lot like our bosses. They were patronizing, disrespectful and seemed more interested in flirting with us than listening to us. The union reps talked about how women were hard to organize because we were only working for pin money and only working until we found a husband. When we researched these unions that had the “jurisdiction” to organize women workers, we found that they were “international” unions. The office workers’, restaurant workers’ and retail workers’ unions were all headquartered in various U.S. cities. We were shocked at the powers of the “international” President and the provisions that allowed them to replace local officers and override the votes of local memberships.

At this time in B.C., there was a new movement within the established trade unions known as the independent Canadian trade union movement. New “breakaway” unions were being formed. Union members in the steel, forest, and pulp and paper industries, tired of the lack of democracy, sweetheart contracts and in some cases, corruption, within their so called international unions, left their existing unions to join the newly formed, locally controlled, Canadian unions.

They inspired us and made us think about the possibility and potential of an independent, feminist union.

Related Materials

Women and Quebec Struggle (Jan. 1971) – announcement of meeting with speaker Simone Chartrand re War Measures Act in Oct. 1970 and also meeting of first general public meeting of the VWC to address relation of women’s liberation movement to the trade union movement and the struggle against unemployment.