1946 Montreal Cottons strike

The Montreal Cottons 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.^[1] 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.^[2] The strikes were organized by the Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA), an international union.^[3] In Valleyfield, Kent Rowley and Madeleine Parent acted as representatives of the UTWA.^[4]

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.^[5] In Valleyfield the situation was different, and only after a violent riot on August 13 would the company seriously enter negotiations with the workers.^[6] 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.^[7] Locally, the strike was important since it was the first time that workers at Montreal Cotton's Valleyfield mill obtained a collective contract.^[8] 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.