Plamondon was born on January 6,1926,in Montreal. Her father was a member of the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen of America. She entered the labour force as a stenographer at a steel plant,and when the United Steelworkers of America started organizing the plant,Huguette became one of the campaign's most militant supporters.[3]
Activism and career
In 1945,at the age of 19,Huguette Plamondon started working as a secretary in the Montreal office of the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA).[4] Shortly thereafter,she started organizing meatpacking workers in Montreal,and began a decades long career as a voice for food workers and for one of North America's largest and unions.[citation needed]
She became a member of the Montreal Labour Council (Conseil du travail de Montréal) in 1953,which at that time was affiliated to the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). In 1955 she was elected president of the Montreal Labour Council,and served in that role until 1958,[1][4] thus becoming the first woman in Canada to lead a major labour organization.[2] In 1956,she participated in the Rassemblement,[5] a short-lived political movement led by Pierre Dansereau and Pierre Trudeau.[citation needed]
In 1956,she was elected a vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress,[4] thus becoming the first woman to achieve a Canada-wide union executive position.[citation needed] She held that office for 32 years,until 1988.[citation needed]
From 1961 until 1966,she was a member of the Quebec Council of Economic Planification (Conseil de planification économique du Québec).[1] In 1973,she was a member of the Economic Council of Canada.[1]
She served as an International Vice-President of the United Food and Commercial Workers. She was also the president of UFCW Canada Local 744P in Quebec.[2] Near the end of her career,she was Executive Assistant to the UFCW Canadian Director,Clifford R. Evans.[4]
She was married to Romeo Mathieu,also a trade unionist.[2] She died of a heart attack in 2010,at the age of 84.[2]
↑ Lazarus, Morden (1977). Up from the ranks: trade union vip's past and present. Co-operative Press Associates. p.103.
1 2 3 4 France Laurendeau, «Syndicaliste jusqu'au bout des ongles!Archived 2013-11-14 at the Wayback Machine», on the website of the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec, excerpted from the book Ces femmes qui ont bâti Montréal, Éditions du remue-ménage, 1994, p. 307 à 309 (in French)
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