An Interpretation
The Workers
by Catherine C. Cole
The history of garment workers who passed through the plant's doors offers a glimpse of the history of all working people in Edmonton and mirrors the successive waves of immigration to western Canada. Particularly since the end of World War II, the story has been largely one of women's work in a multicultural environment.
Local 120 of the United Garment Workers of America (UGWA) was formed at GWG in 1911 with seven members, the minimum required to receive a charter. The UGWA was affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL).
GWG workers unionized just a month after the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City, which claimed the lives of 146 of the 500 employees, primarily young women. When the fire broke out near closing time on Saturday March 25, 1911, the fire escapes were locked and many jumped to their deaths from ninth storey windows. This was the worst disaster in New York history prior to 9/11, and was reported on the front pages of The Edmonton Journal at the time. Workers at UGWA unionized to improve working conditions and pay.
The American Federation of Labor authorized the use of a United Garment Workers of America label on all union-made clothing.
GWG promoted the fact that its garments were union-made in advertising campaigns in newspapers and magazines, and through trade fairs. Workers originally were paid piecework, meaning that they received x amount for each operation, each pocket, zipper or seam completed. Rates were periodically revised through discussion between Local union representatives and management. When they were not able to agree on the minimum schedule of prices workers were to be paid for piecework, the union could withhold the use of the label. Working women in cities, unsupported by fathers or husbands, sometimes had difficulty earning a living and turned in desperation to prostitution; Local 120 worked to ensure this was not the fate of its members.
By the end of the first year of operation, there were more than 100 operators and twelve salesmen. Relations between Local 120 and management were generally positive. Local 120 was the first UGWA Local on the continent to establish an eight-hour day. Local 120 was one of few local unions to vote against the general strike in 1919. There was a brief disruption one day in 1919 when workers sat on the fire escape for an hour over the pay schedule; and years later when a group took a day off to go to the Edmonton Exhibition, but generally workers were content.
The First World War encouraged further growth of GWG as war contracts provided full-time, continuous employment for 150 workers and acted as a buffer for seasonal purchases (and therefore production), of work clothes.
In 1916, employees worked ten-hour days and a half day on Saturdays; daily hours were reduced to eight in 1917 and GWG's letterhead proclaimed: "Where the eight hour day and fair wages prevail." Married women were allowed to apply for jobs for the first time during WWI and their work was considered to be of such importance that seamstresses for GWG were classified as performing an essential war service and, as such were not allowed to quit work unless they enlisted.
Following the introduction of the first provincial Factories Act in 1917, and the Minimum Wage Act in 1922, Local 120 influenced the hours, wages and working conditions of other workers in the province through its representation on the Minimum Wage Board.
When the minimum wage was introduced, workers had to be able to complete x number of operations per hour, in order to earn the minimum wage; they could earn above the minimum wage through bonusing. People under the age of fifteen were not supposed to be employed in factories, however, younger people who "had the height," and lied about their age, were sometimes hired.
Work continued to be seasonal; a former worker remembered that the 'girls' had as much as three months off in the winter and, "if the farmers didn't get rain in June we used to get a couple of months holiday in the summer." When possible, GWG would switch workers from one machine or operation to another to try to prevent layoffs.
The company grew through the 1910s and 1920s to 300 employees, but, like manufacturers internationally, hit a slump in the 1930s. Ukrainians were known to be good workers and GWG recruited Ukrainian settlers from east of the city to relocate to Edmonton to work at the plant. GWG employed 300 workers during the Depression, a number that grew to over 500 by the beginning of World War II, and 600 by the mid-1950s.
Working at GWG, and later Levis, was physically difficult work in a very noisy, dusty environment. Workers wore ear plugs, aprons and gloves. Some wore arm protectors and dust masks. GWG had a part-time nurse on staff.
Ongoing interviews with former employees will provide more insight into the working lives of operators in the post-WWII period. The plant became a very multicultural work environment after the war. A shortage of workers in Edmonton in the mid-1960s led GWG to establish a vocational training program, and in 1966 a basic English course for new Canadians. In 1968, Local 120 hired its first full-time Business Agent.
Since the 1970s, Community Involvement Teams in Edmonton, Saskatoon and Winnipeg volunteered through various community organizations.
In 1994, the UGWA became a part of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).