Behind the Seams: Garment Workers in BC, Podcast Ep. 32
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 of On the Line 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.
Anne Marshall began her working life in restaurants, where she first encountered the labour movement during a longshoremen’s strike in the 1920s. After learning to sew, she entered the garment industry and eventually worked at Jantzen’s, a factory notorious for its oppressive pay system. Disturbed by the exploitative piecework and lack of worker protections, Anne helped organize her workplace and joined the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), eventually becoming a full-time organizer and business agent. She organized several shops, advocated for fairer wages and conditions, and fought racism in the workplace.
Esther Peters began work at West Coast Woolen Mills, where injuries were common and conditions were harsh. In a workplace rife with hazards and without basic safety measures, Esther was injured multiple times. Eventually, a quiet but determined union drive succeeded, leading to the formation of the Textile Workers Industrial Union of BC, where Esther became president.
The episode also touches on the decline of North America’s garment industry in the late 20th century due to global outsourcing, and the ILGWU’s efforts to promote union-made goods. Though the industry has faded, the legacy of these workers lives on in unions like UNITE-HERE Local 40.