With Azelus Beaucage (to her right) after their conviction for seditious conspiracy in 1948. They were acquitted in 1955.

Otherwise, when discussion of issues that primarily affect women - child care, the right to be trained for a non-traditional job, the right to be paid equally for work that is of equal value - is in an early stage, the tendency in union meetings once women have voiced their concern is for the men to say, “Okay, now we've talked about that let's get down to serious matters.” A strong women's committee will eventually win recognition of their concerns as serious matters. A women's committee can call meetings where women can first discuss their concerns among themselves. Women then come to the main union meetings better informed, more confident and able to speak up and have their demands heard.

But those women's committees must have support of the top leadership of the unions as well as obtain a degree of autonomy. Such is not always the case.

CHRISTINA: Should the concerns of women remain unified with the demands of the rest of the union or is there any benefit in presenting a separate front?

MADELEINE: Oh, it's always got to remain unified. You want one bargaining unit with the employer and that unit has to present to the employer a united front.

If you had a separate bargaining unit for women and a separate bargaining unit for men, it would destroy the purpose of collective bargaining and the employer would be tempted to play one group against the other. The men in the unions have to be won over by your possession of information, your consciousness of your rights and your unity in taking a stand for them. Women also have to fight for the right to leadership within the bargaining unit. If the bargaining committee is only made up of men, you can be sure that what will be dropped first in the course of bargaining will be the paid maternity leave.

If women are on the bargaining committee, supported by a base of women in the union, they can hold out for those demands as the Quebec public sector workers did in 1980. They won virtually full pay - really about 94% - for 20 weeks maternity leave and the right to add their four weeks paid vacation to that leave, if they wanted. They also won two years unpaid parental leave. But it was done because women were active and in certain positions of power.

CHRISTINA: What role can unions play in educating women about non-traditional occupations or even teaching them the necessary skills for work that is traditionally better paid?