This interview focuses on the moment of the 1978 landmark strike against Fleck Manufacturing, an auto-wiring plant located outside London ON, and the support that Organized Working Women mobilized on behalf of the women strikers. The interview offers insight into the decision of the United Auto Workers Union to fight the strike as a woman’s strike and the efforts to deal with the violence and police intimidation on the picket line. There are recollections of the OWW-led solidarity mobilization that brought 300 Toronto women to the Fleck picket line as well as commentary on the women strikers. Reflection and analysis of OWW’s role in the Fleck strike addresses OWW’s long history of support work across a number of women’s strikes, including the Eaton’s Strike of 1984-1985. It also considers the role played by the alliance forged between the labour and feminist movements in fostering union receptiveness towards equity issues.   

With Wendy Cuthbertson, Holly Kirkconnell, Barbara Cameron, Margaret McPhail.

Interviewed by Franca Iacovetta