Accommodating Resistance: Unionization, Gender, and Ethnicity in Winnipeg’s Garment Industry, 1929–1945

Abstract

This article examines the culturally particular and gendered ways in which Jewish immigrant women in the garment industry negotiated their new Canadian urban environments by participating in labour protest, indicating how the site of the strike was one structured by gender and ethnicity as well as by class. Canada’s urban space both facilitated immigrant women’s integration into society by enabling their interaction with Canadian political and economic structures and encouraged their retention of culturally particular ways of life by providing sites and spaces for politically charged gatherings that not only reinforced these workers’ ethnic traditions but also put their status as militant women on public display. These women strikers’ accommodation and resistance to Canadian society was also affected by Anglo Canadians’ representations of them, by shifting unionization tactics—from radical to conservative—and by social constructions of gender, ethnicity, and class.

Stitching History: Filipina Garment Workers In Winnipeg

“…There is existing research that discusses, to varying degrees, the experiences of Filipina garment workers (Buduhan 1972;Dalayoan 2012;"From Manila to Manitoba") in Winnipeg. The resources on Filipina garment workers will be supplemented with literature detailing the experiences of garment workers from other racialized groups (Frager 1992;Frager & Patrias 2005;Gannage 1986;Giesbrecht 2010): the women all worked in the same profession and therefore, may have had similar experiences. Finally, research looking at Winnipeg's garment industry on the whole will be examined (Lepp, Millar & Roberts 1987;Khatun 2005), with a particular emphasis on how migrants such as Filipinos were used to fill the need for workers.…”

“…A number of resources on garment workers from other racialized groups (Frager 1992;Frager & Patrias 2005;Gannage 1986;Giesbrecht 2010) discussed not only the unjust working conditions of the women involved, but also the efforts that were made to mobilize and fight for their rights. Three of those resources (Frager 1992;Frager & Patrias 2005;Giesbrecht 2010) mainly discussed the experiences of Jewish garment workers in Toronto (Frager 1992;Frager & Patrias 2005) and Manitoba (Giesbrecht 2010). Another book (Gannage 1986) discussed the experiences of Jewish garment workers, but also those of other racialized groups, including…”

“…Although much of the work that is referenced in this paper was written from a Marxist-Feminist standpoint (Frager 1992;Frager & Patrias 2005;Gannage 1986;Giesbrecht 2010), this research paper will use the theoretical framework of political economy. The political economy perspective deals with "the interaction of political and economic processes in a society: the distribution of power and wealth between different groups and individuals, and the processes that create, sustain and transform these relationships over time" ("Political Economy Analysis" n.d.), which, in the case of the Filipina garment workers, means the movement of a cheap source of labour for the Canadian economy.…”