This is how they tried to get us out. Soon as he said that, I was on the phone. I phoned the Labour Board. This happened the first of September and it was way after Christmas before we got it all settled. As it happened, when they let us go we had our stamps for the year. We were lucky. We were safe. If it had been in the middle of the year we wouldn't have had enough stamps for that. It could've been hard times if it had been in the middle of the summer.

When they were trying to form this union there was more women in the plant than men 'cause the trimmers were all women, the packers were all women, and the graders too. It was only the cutters and a few freezer men that were not. Anyway, the manager called a big meeting and he was talking about people signing the union cards, and one man spoke up and said, "I don't think them women really knows what they were signing."

I said, "You listen here. There's nobody in this plant that don't know how to read and write."

And that was the only time me and the manager ever agreed. But see, the men could do what they like. I remember in that plant the cutters were working on

piecework and we were getting paid by the hour. It was just so unfair, it's unreal. They would come down on a Saturday afternoon, about 4:30, and ask the cutters to work another hour or two. And the cutters would say, "No, we're not working."

Then the foreman would go back up and tell the manager, and he would send the foreman down - "Well, if you work, we'll give you another half cent on the pound and we'll take the trap fish off the line and put handline on, the big stuff."

Well of course then the cutters would work, they would cut like the son of a bitch, pile us to the roof. No one would say, "This is Saturday night. Are you working? Do you mind working?" We probably after working 50 hours or more. We'd be there till midnight trying to clean up the mess, and not 5 cents, no overtime, not a thing. I could package what I like, the trimmers could trim what they like, they wouldn't put us on piecework. We figured it was because we were all women.

I was at one plant and if they got the cost of a package down under 5 cents they would be in their glory, call you up in a big meeting, praising you to the highest. So, I knew what the cost in small plants was. This day we were at another plant and buddy called a big meeting. And he said, "The cost is up. What are you doing down there? The cost of this packaging is up."