Ep 32: Behind the Seams - Garment Workers in BC

For most of the 20th century, garment workers—mostly women—sewed, pressed and wove fabric on factory assembly lines throughout the Lower Mainland, before the domestic industry began to decline with globalization. This episode features an interview with Anne Marshall, a garment worker who became an organizer and business agent for the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) in Vancouver beginning in the 1940s. We also hear from Esther Peters who worked at Vancouver's West Coast Woolen Mills. She became a shop steward and then president of the Textile Workers Industrial Union of BC. 

Theme song: "Hold the Fort” (traditional) - Arranged & Performed by Tom Hawken & his band, 1992.

Episode music: 

“Look for the Union Label”, lyrics by Paula Green, music by Malcolm Dodds. International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, 1975. https://all-together-now.com/story/the-ilgwu-in-canada/

"Bread and Roses" (traditional) - performed by So-So-So Solidarite, Justice! (Compact Disc). Canadian Union of Postal Workers, n.d.

Sources:

Anne Marshall. Audio interview by Sara Diamond, Women's Labour History Project. 1979.  Courtesy VIVO Media Arts Centre and SFU Archives. 

Esther Peters. Video interview by Geoff Peters. 1981. (personal collection)

Cornell University IRL School The ILGWU in Canada. The Kheel Center ILGWU Collection. https://ilgwu.ilr.cornell.edu/announcements/27.html

Research and writing by Natasha Fairweather and Patricia Wejr

Hosted by Rod Mickleburgh

Technical production by John Mabbott

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