Year: 2007
Location: Edmonton
Profile: Willa Gorman’s 40-year career as a lab technician in the women-dominated fiber department of the former Celanese plant gave her firsthand knowledge of the department’s unsafe working conditions and promoted her union activism. Employees in the 24/7 fibres area worked with toxic chemicals, including acetone and methalene chloride, with no safety protection. The union played a major role in improving safety standards. To the chagrin of her anti-union father, Gorman became active in the union, figuring, “if we don’t work together, where are we going to be?” She recalls women hiding their pregnancies under tent-styled dresses to delay the requirement to stop work early without pay. Ultimately Gorman served on the executive for the Energy and Chemical Workers Union (now Unifor) and participated in larger social issues, including Medicare. She also participated in the Gainers strike, recalling how she had stopped the truck she was driving in front of a bus carrying scab labourers; she told police that the truck had stalled. Family illness, an accident, and a suicide required that Gorman take significant time off work and sometimes adjust her hours. She experienced understanding and flexibility from management on those occasions for which she remains grateful.
Keywords: Energy and Chemical Workers Union; Fibers; Gainers strike; Lab technician; Medicare; Pregnancy and pay; Toxic chemicals; Xanthates.
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See also: Celanese Edmonton: Workers’ Stories; Occupational Health and Safety in Alberta; Summer of ’86 in Alberta; Unifor; Women and Work in Alberta