Boulevard Saint-Laurent
Historic north-south thoroughfare where waves of immigrant garment workers built the clothing trade.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Boulevard Saint-Laurent in Montreal centers on a single April morning in 1937, when thousands of women stood up from their sewing machines in the garment shops that once lined this street. You'll hear about the Jewish and French-Canadian seamstresses who worked the same seams but were rarely expected to organize together, and about organizers Léa Roback, Rose Pesotta and Yvette Charpentier, who spent weeks building trust shop by shop before calling anyone out. It follows what the workers demanded and how far the manufacturers were willing to go.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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