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The Montreal Cotton Company strike of 1946 was a hundred-day-long strike in which 3,000 mill workers from Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec fought for the right to obtain a collective agreement.〔“Dans le Textile: La grève déclenchée,” La Presse, June 1 st , 1946, 19.〕 Mill workers in Valleyfield walked off the job on June 1, 1946 as part of a larger textile strike movement which included one of Dominion Textile's mills located within Montreal.〔"Dans le Textile: La grève déclenchée,” La Presse, June 1 st , 1946, 19.〕 The strikes were organized by the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA), an international union.〔Denyse Baillargeon, “Textile Strikes in Quebec: 1946, 1947, 1952,” in Madeleine Parent: Activist, ed. Andrée Levesque, trans. Andrée Levesque (Toronto : Sumach Press, 2005), 60.〕 In Valleyfield, Kent Rowley and Madeleine Parent acted as representatives of the UTWA.〔Denyse Baillargeon, “Textile Strikes in Quebec: 1946, 1947, 1952,” in Madeleine Parent: Activist, ed. Andrée Levesque, trans. Andrée Levesque (Toronto : Sumach Press, 2005), 60-61.〕 By August 1, the strike had been settled in Montreal and workers had returned to work at the Dominion Textile mills after entering negotiations with the company.〔Lt- Col. W.G.E. Aird, “La grève est réglée à Montréal, mais pas ici,” Le Progrès de Valleyfield, August 1, 1946, 1.〕 In Valleyfield the situation was different, and only after a violent riot on August 13 would the company seriously enter negotiations with the workers.〔Lucie Bettez, “Cent Jours dans la vie des Campivallensiennes. La grève de 1946 à Salaberry-de-Valleyfield,” Labour/Le Travail, 62 (Fall 2008), 25-26.〕 After the riot, strikers returned to work September 9 and a collective agreement was signed November 26 between Montreal Cottons Ltd. (the parent of Montreal Cotton Co.) and union representatives.〔Lucie Bettez, “Cent Jours dans la vie des Campivallensiennes. La grève de 1946 à Salaberry-de-Valleyfield,” Labour/Le Travail, 62 (Fall 2008), 26.〕 Locally, the strike was important since it was the first time that workers at Montreal Cotton's Valleyfield mill obtained a collective contract.〔Madeleine Parent, “Usurping the Reign of the Favorites: Interview with Madeleine Parent,” interview by Christina Starr, Women’s Education des Femmes 6, no.3 (Summer 1988):7.〕 On a larger scale, the 1946 Montreal Cotton strike was reflective of a larger national movement during the 1940s and 1950s against the extremist conservative attitudes which characterized Quebec during la Grande Noirceur under the Duplessis government.The labour activism and the role of women in this strike challenge the historical narrative of a hegemonic conservative Quebec under the leadership of Maurice Duplessis. == Background == From 1878 until the 1940s, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield was a monopoly town under the primary direction of Montreal Cottons.〔Claude Larivière, Histoire des Travailleurs de Beauharnois et Valleyfield, (Montréal : Éditions Albert St-Martin, 1974), 12,24,28.〕 The company had a large influence over the city, as it provided jobs and housing for a large amount of the city's citizens.〔Claude Larivière, Histoire des Travailleurs de Beauharnois et Valleyfield, (Montréal : Éditions Albert St-Martin, 1974), 30-34.〕 By the 1940s, Montreal Cottons had further established its sphere of influence by fostering ties with local parishes and provincial politicians.〔Claude Larivière, Histoire des Travailleurs de Beauharnois et Valleyfield, (Montréal : Éditions Albert St-Martin, 1974), 32-33.〕 From its establishment in 1878 until 1946, relations between Montreal Cottons and its textile workers were often tense.〔Claude Larivière, Histoire des Travailleurs de Beauharnois et Valleyfield, (Montréal : Éditions Albert St-Martin, 1974),12.〕 In 1937 the company's workers went on strike for 28 days, demanding better working conditions and better pay.〔Claude Larivière, Histoire des Travailleurs de Beauharnois et Valleyfield, (Montréal : Éditions Albert St-Martin, 1974),30-31.〕 The strikers were represented by the Catholic Workers Confederation of Canada (CTCC) and were actively supported by the church.〔Claude Larivière, Histoire des Travailleurs de Beauharnois et Valleyfield, (Montréal : Éditions Albert St-Martin, 1974),30-31.〕 The strike was a failure. The CTCC had chosen Maurice Duplessis and Cardinal Villeneuve to mediate negotiations between the strikers and the company.〔Claude Larivière, Histoire des Travailleurs de Beauharnois et Valleyfield, (Montréal : Éditions Albert St-Martin, 1974),32.〕 Duplessis and Villeneuve were ultra conservative men who favoured the company over the workers. Thus, the workers gained nothing from the negotiations or the strike.〔Claude Larivière, Histoire des Travailleurs de Beauharnois et Valleyfield, (Montréal : Éditions Albert St-Martin, 1974),31.〕 The 1946 strike did not occur in a vacuum. Rather, it was the product of over four years of planning and a decade's worth of grievances. As early as 1942, Kent Rowley (a representative of the United Trade Workers Union (UTWA)) and Trefflé Leduc (a local union leader) had been organizing workers from Montreal Cotton's Valleyfield mills.〔Lucie Bettez, “Cent Jours dans la vie des Campivallensiennes. La grève de 1946 à Salaberry-de-Valleyfield,” Labour/Le Travail, 62 (Fall 2008), 26.〕 The grievances of the workers to an extent echoed those of the 1937 strike, as well as the grievances issued in the Royal Commission Inquiry on the Textile Industry of 1938.〔Canada.Report of the Royal Commission on the Textile Industry (Ottawa 1938), 125,146-147, 177.〕 Workers demanded a salary raise of fifteen cents an hour, a forty hour work week, compensation for working overtime, better working conditions, and union recognition.〔Lucie Bettez, “Cent Jours dans la vie des Campivallensiennes. La grève de 1946 à Salaberry-de-Valleyfield,” Labour/Le Travail, 62 (Fall 2008), 18-23.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1946 Montreal Cotton strike」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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