Transcript for: Union Local 120 improves working conditions and benefits
Mary Romanuk
The Ladies Garment Workers had a role to play at that time because I'm sure that they gained a lot of ground as far as setting rates, work conditions, of course the nurse maybe wouldn't have been there if the union hadn't been.
The Ladies Garment Unions were not as powerful as some of the men's labour unions. They were classed as like, "oh she's got a husband" - whenever we went for contract, renew a contract - "got a husband to support her. She doesn't need to have a pension." And they never had a pension until I quit in '73.
Nellie Engley
They got us a lunch room, because you either sat at your machine or just sat on the stairs somewhere or go outside and eat you know. But most of the time you sat at your machine because we had nowhere to go.
Anne Baranyk
When I first came into that place, I thought that that was a very gloomy place because as I was coming to work
there were people that came to talk to me and, and I, I asked them how everything was with them and they said uh "oh it's uh we have to be careful."
And I asked them "Why? Why are you scared?" I spoke English well for one thing.
And I didn't have the fear that some might have to talk with management.
We had a lot of grievances. Matter of fact we met every week at least to talk about things like that.
Guiseppina Tagliente
I think union helped people and I wanted to help people.
To make difference in people's life,
to change things through the year because
we have a more benefit upgrade through our contract,
Like we didn't have vision, then we have vision and ambulance you know,
other benefits like
pension plan, things like that.
Janet Cardinal
Being involved in the union it sure opens your eyes for people that didn't even know they had rights.
I had a good grip on the English language and I could read the contract book quite well and as soon as I got one boy, I read it from cover to cover and made sure I had all my rights because I used to argue with my supervisor a lot (laughs). Because they would tell us things and I knew it wasn't right.
And then once the other people around me found out that I didn't take no guff from nobody they would come to me.
As people learnt that they had more rights, they would stand up more to their supervisors
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