Year: 2003
Location: Calgary
Profile: Mary Price, born in Winnipeg in 1912, grew up in a community that valued labour organizing and their Ukrainian heritage. Her father taught her to read Ukrainian from a young age, and her family was involved in the first picnic held by a predecessor organization to the progressive Association of United Ukrainian Canadians. Her construction worker father was active in the local labour movement, helping to organize unions and participating in the Winnipeg General Strike.
In the 1930s, Price worked as a domestic worker earning $15 a month. She left for Toronto where she was employed as a garment worker. She describes her workplace as a sweatshop where workers were paid for piecework and earned 10 to 15 cents per hour. She was active in the needle trades union that the workers joined in their struggle for improvements in their wages and working conditions. After World War Two, she became politically active, joining the peace movement and the Communist Party. In 1952, she moved to Calgary.
During her interview, Price described the labour exploitation and strikes at General Motors in St. Catherine’s, particularly the situation of Bill Small, a highly skilled automobile serviceman who received poor recognition and compensation.
Keywords: Association of United Ukrainian Canadians; Communist Party; Domestic worker; Garment worker; Great Depression; Needle trades union; Peace movement; Winnipeg General Strike; World War Two.
Transcript: Download PDF
See also: Great Labour Revolt, 1919; Women and Work in Alberta