Working Conditions
In these early days of industrialisation, spinning mills determined wages and working hours. For many years children worked alongside their parents and employees learned their jobs pretty much by hit and miss. Generally, employees spent 8-12 hours per day together. At one time, 50% of Salaberry-de-Valleyfield’s population worked for the Montreal Cotton Co.
Wool and cotton factories were the first Canadian companies to hire young women and adolescents. In Canada, they made up the majority of textile industry labourers. At the end of the 19th century, a law was enacted making it illegal to hire boys under 12 and girls under 14. Nevertheless, nearly 20% of spinning mill employees were aged 12 to 24. Parents tampered with their children’s birth certificates to bring extra income into the household.
In addition to harsh conditions – heat, humidity, and noise – wages were much lower than in the printing, footwear, and construction industries. In Montreal, at the beginning of the 20th century, children made between $1.50 and $1.80 for a 60-hour week!
Large-scale cotton production required state-of-the-art machinery. Before WWI, muscular strength was not a prerequisite to operating the machinery. Consequently, women made up a large part of the textile industry’s employees.
They were often relegated to specific departments, to work on weaving looms for example, or assigned to jobs requiring speed and dexterity. Up to the 1950s, more than half of the women mill workers were single and between the ages of 20 and 34.
TRANSCRIPT
Question: What was the hard part?
Rollande Normandeau: You're always standing, you have no break. At the time I worked it wasn't from 6 in the morning until 6 in the evening, or 7 in the morning...
In my time there were three shifts: 7 to 3, 3 to 11, 11 to 7. We never stopped, not even to eat,
we didn't have a half-hour to eat because the machines couldn't stop. We didn't stop at all.
Question: That would have meant production losses for the company... Wasn’t there someone to take over for you?
Rollande Normandeau: No. There were no extra employees, like in restaurants, there are substitutes... in the stores... but at the plant, there were no extra employees.
Question: If someone took a break, someone else could take over?
Rollande Normandeau: There was none of that. No. We had to be quick, even to go to the restroom, running, because it never stopped.
Question: Was it stressful?
Rollande Normandeau: Yes, very stressful.
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