Bomb Girls

by Barbara Dickson

  GECOites recognized a need for some sort of intermediary group to take their needs and concerns to management. With Bob and Phil’s encouragement, and at their request, employees organized the GECO Munition Workers’ Association.78

  Until Canada’s federal government passed legislation in 1944 to enact labour reform — in particular, provisions for union certification and collective bargaining in good faith — the Munition Workers’ Association (M.W.A.) was not a union.79 Even after the association was made more formal and referred to as Local No. 1, there was no other.80 Unions tried to organize GECO’s operators in filling shops during the course of the plant’s operation, but, for the most part, workers were happy with their M.W.A., with management’s commitment to keep the lines of communication open and to maintain a high standard of working conditions and boost morale.81 This dampened any desire to form a union. Unions formed at other war plants, especially when the labour situation grew graver after more and more men shipped out, allowing workers to demand higher wages.82 Unionized shops received a 10 to 20 percent pay increase; non-unionized plants like GECO had to strive diligently to keep their employees happy to remain competitive.83

  The M.W.A. worked with management. They found ways to conserve materials.84 They helped eliminate sources of operator “irritation” to reduce absenteeism, and they introduced changes that would have a positive effect on working conditions and relationships.85 The association issued an off-white booklet entitled What the M.W.A. Can Do, describing the role and responsibilities of the association.86 The M.W.A. guaranteed a “no strike” policy to give workers peace of mind.87 It guaranteed that it would not get involved in “big business unions.”88 The association would bargain collectively for fair wages and working conditions, ensure seniority and overtime rights, negotiate for legal holidays with pay and double pay, and obtain extra pay for afternoon and night shifts.89

  Elections occurred annually.90 The M.W.A. represented all workers below the rank of assistant foreman on the clean side and foreman on the dirty side.91 Employees nominated candidates from within their shop or department.92 Each department elected a representative — approximately one for every fifty employees.93 Those representatives appointed an Executive Plant Council — one for every two hundred employees — who met with management knowing they took any grievance from the M.W.A. seriously.94

  The only labour strife Bob and Phil Hamilton encountered at GECO occurred over the course of one shift on September 11, 1942.95 The operators in Building No. 63 refused to work due to “working the worst shift without relief.”96 The operators had worked many days without a day off due to demanding production schedules attributed to fierce fighting overseas. The women were exhausted and feared they would make a fatal mistake borne of crushing fatigue. The M.W.A. got involved immediately, the employees returned to work, and shortly thereafter operators in three other buildings, in solidarity with their fellow fuse-fillers, agreed to go on rotating shifts.97 Within weeks all workers on the clean side of the plant adapted to shift rotation.98 GECOnian Sylvia Nordstrand said the only aspect she did not like about working at GECO was doing shiftwork. It “played havoc with your sleep. You no sooner got used to sleeping on one shift when you had to change to another. The night shift was the worst. You couldn’t sleep when you got home in the morning. Then while working at 2:00 a.m., you would give anything for sleep.”99

  In another less serious incident, workers in the Pellet and Magazine Section threatened to strike because they felt they deserved higher wages given the extraordinary dangers of their work.100 The M.W.A. took their grievance to management, who moved quickly to adjust their wages accordingly.101

  Winning the war was, for the vast majority of employees, the motivation behind every fuse filled at GECO. Regardless of striving for optimal working conditions, or crabbing about petty inconveniences, women showed up for work every shift in a dedicated bid to bring their loved ones home quickly. “The war must be won,” it said in M.W.A,’s booklet. “A better, more democratic and free M.W.A. in G.E.CO. will help YOU and your kinfolk overseas to win the war.”102

  Blood Is Thicker Than Water

  GECO held its first blood donor clinic on December 2, 1942, as part of the Canadian Red Cross Society’s new initiative to go to donors instead of donors coming to them.103 This first blood drive collected sixty-one donations.104 Word spread rapidly and at the next clinic workers made 111 donations, almost double that of the first.105 GECO held weekly blood donor drives over the course of the war.106 By the time Scarboro closed its doors, GECOnians had donated 8,453 units of blood.107 Additional “on call” blood donors were available at GECO should an emergency arise, such as an explosion.108

  “We are constantly receiving reports of the value of dried human serum,” wrote Mr. G.R. Sproat, Director of Blood Donor Services, in a thank-you letter to GECO workers.109 “It is being used in the front lines with great results. It must be a source of great pride to the donors to know that their blood is helping save lives of their brothers and human kind throughout the Allied fighting fronts.”110

  I’m Making Bombs and Buying Bonds

  Wars cost money. Canada needed $12 million a day to fulfil its military obligations and help Allied prisoners of war.111 With a promise to give their money back with interest at predetermined rates and redemption dates, the Canadian government, aiming to raise a staggering $750 million through just one victory war bond drive, asked its citizens to buy bonds and War Savings Certificates.112 By Canada’s fifth drive, that individual bond objective had grown to $1.2 billion.113

  GECO employees purchased almost $4 million in bonds over the course of the global conflict.114 By the time the first edition of the GECO Fusilier went to print, the second Canada Victory Loan campaign — the first for Scarboro — was finished.115 Management had asked GECOites to meet a $150,000 quota in two weeks.116 Employees more than doubled that amount with total subscriptions of $327,939 with practically 100 percent participation.117 Bob and Phil Hamilton wrote, “Although we have learned to expect thoroughness in everything undertaken by the employees of this plant, your effort in this campaign surpassed our highest hopes. We thank you sincerely.”118

  GECO set their next Victory Loan goal at $350,000 but with still a week to go, the plant already had raised $322,500, so GECO raised their quota.119 “Our real objective is not $350,000 or $400,000 or any other arbitrary figure —” wrote Ross Davis in the employee newspaper, “— it is to do our utmost, whatever that may be, to blast from the earth these beasts who cast little children adrift in open boats in the mid-Atlantic to perish, who glory in the murder of defenceless people. That’s our real objective.”120 Employee purchases totalled $384,844.121

  By the end of Canada’s fourth Victory Loan campaign, GECO employees purchased $545,000 in bonds, easily surpassing an already aggressive goal of $504,800, which had been increased from an initial target of $385,000.122 To maintain employees’ enthusiastic drive to give, F.G. Pope, Chairman of GECO’s Victory Loan Committee, asked workers to “… show the Madman of Berchtesgaden that we’re 100 percent behind the War effort. Why wait another six months till we tell him again? Let’s tell him again and again, every single day, by the way we conduct ourselves by sticking to our respective jobs, by the way we produce things to hit him with — that we’re in this struggle with all we have, and for all we can produce till Victory is won and Freedom assured.”123

  GECO employees purchased almost $4 million in bonds during Canada’s Victory Loans campaigns. Stirring poems and articles appeared in the employee newspaper during the bi-yearly bond appeals. Workers were encouraged to bring “their treasure to fill the coffers of the State, denying themselves the trinkets and pleasures of peacetime.” Courtesy of Barbara Dickson, from Archives of Ontario.

  During the next bond drive, held in the fall of 1943, the employee newspaper dedicated an issue to encourage subscriptions through heart-stirring articles. Bill Taylor, Engineering, wrote:

  These boys — sailors,
soldiers, airmen — they are offering everything they have, even to life itself, as their contribution to the speeding of the victory. Seems ridiculous that we should be asked to contribute — what we have to spare! Crazy, isn’t it? Home; wife; family; food; comfort; security; and what’s left after these have been assured we are asked to loan as our contribution to victory. Not to give; just to loan! Over there, they are willing to give everything! Over here, are we willing to loan all we have to spare — and that extra that means victory?

  There isn’t any option — for a Canadian. It has to be every cent that can be spared — every cent that can be squeezed from the savings of the past, the earnings of the present, and the wages of the future. Without these cents and dollars there won’t be any future that’s worth while; for Canadians. The job of the moment is to Speed the Victory! Our part is to provide the dollars for the material that means Victory.124

  Neither time nor the hint of the war ending had much effect on the drive to buy bonds. During Canada’s seventh bond drive, GECO raised $788,950, 42 percent over their target of $555,000, with a subscription rate of $139.59 per employee.125 By the eighth Canadian Victory Loan campaign — the seventh for GECO — employees were still eager to help the war effort financially. Victory in Europe was palpable and fund raising now focused on returning, reuniting, and rehabilitating loved ones.126 GECO’s target set at $560,000 was met the first day.127 They would go on to achieve $682,500 in purchases with an average of more than $150 subscribed per employee.128 Subscriptions for seven campaigns held at GECO totalled a stunning $3,873,643, or the equivalent of more than $51 million dollars today, assuming 3 percent interest.129

  The Good Ol’ Sally Ann

  In yet another initiative, GECO employees raised $2,500 toward the purchase of a Salvation Army Mobile Canteen, above and beyond their support in Victory Loan drives.130 “Whether it is army manoeuvres in England,” Ross Davis wrote in GECO Fusilier’s Vol. 2 No. 2 edition, “—commandos returning from a raid on the continent — the navy back in a home port after the perils of the sea — on the landing fields after a bombing raid over Germany — or “blitzed” areas in Britain — everywhere that men and women doing their bit in this war need the lift of a cup of tea, biscuits, hot chocolate, or cigarettes to relieve the strain of war, there you will find mobile canteens.”131

  GECOite Peggy MacKay, on behalf of GECO’s employees, presented a cheque to cover the purchase of the canteen to Colonel W.J. Bray, Canadian Secretary of War Services of the Salvation Army.132 “The story of the mobile canteen is one that comes close to the hearts of all people of humanitarian instincts,” Ross Davis wrote, “for it is a saga of help in a most practical form to those who are fighting our battles for us.”133

  The Salvation Army is not a military organization, but rather an evangelical Christian church founded in 1865 in London, England’s East End, where poverty, disease, alcoholism, and homelessness ran rampant.134 Its founder, William Booth, a Methodist minister, felt that a human being’s soul couldn’t be fed until their stomach was full.135 The Army’s motto is “Heart to God — Hand to Man,” and today, according to the organization, it is the largest non-governmental social services provider in Canada.136

  Pennies from Heaven

  Friendly rivalry and competition throughout the plant not only helped build morale, but also helped raise money for various war-related causes. One of the earliest philanthropic undertakings originated with GECOite Ruth Richards, who worked in Change House #17.137 Britain was in the throes of the Blitz at the time. The plight of its people touched her heart. Why not collect pennies to support the British War Victims’ Fund? Each payday, small red boxes marked “B.W.V.F.” were set out in the change houses into which operators dropped their pennies, nickels, and dimes.138 While there wasn’t any “prize” for the shift house that raised the most money, fierce competition amongst the women propelled the original and seemingly aggressive target at the outset of one thousand dollars to a considerable chunk of copper.139 By June 1945 GECOites had raised more than $11,000.140

  Special Guests

  During its four-year lifespan, GECO had many distinguished visitors, especially during Victory Loan campaigns. Special guests of note included His Excellency the Earl of Athlone, the sixteenth; governor general of Canada and his wife, H.R.H. Princess Alice; Lieutenant-General Andrew McNaughton; the minister of national defence; Toronto mayor Fred Conboy and his wife; and Ms. Mary Pickford, the Canadian actress ardently dubbed “America’s Sweetheart.”141

  GECO played host during the war to many military dignitaries and well-known entertainers. Canadian actress Mary Pickford visited the plant during a Victory Loan campaign. Courtesy of Archives of Ontario.

  Just before Christmas 1942, GECO workers found brightly coloured handkerchiefs tucked next to their paycheques.142 Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Bernheim of New York City, who had visited the plant earlier that fall, wanted to present a small gift to the women in recognition of their devotion to duty.143 Three hundred and fifty dozen handkerchiefs were manufactured in the plant with which Mr. Bernheim was connected,144 and GECOites showed off their gifts with pride. Photographs taken over the course of the war attested to their popularity.145

  The Songs They Sing Are Preludes to the Voices of the Gun

  Unlike other war plants where employees manufactured heavy machinery, women who worked at GECO enjoyed clean, quiet working conditions. As an extension to their pleasant surroundings, and perhaps as an informal indication of plant morale, operators on the clean side regularly sang as they walked through the gallery system or while they filled munitions.146 Canada’s governor general, His Excellency, the Earl of Athlone, witnessed this cheery phenomenon first-hand and remarked that in the “corridors and on the assembly lines, [the women] broke into spontaneous song.”147 Sylvia Nordstrand, a GECO fuse-filler, said they sang to fight sleep and break up the monotony. “Someone would, say, sing ‘Deep in the Heart of Texas,’ ‘There’s a Long, Long Trail A-Winding,’ or ‘I’ll Never Smile Again.’ Each of us would request a song and all would join in singing. It certainly passed the time beautifully. We never got tired of singing, including our supervisors who joined in.”148

  In a letter to R.M.P. Hamilton on May 5, 1943, L.H. Campbell Jr., Major General, Chief of Ordnance, War Department, wrote: “… it was most unique and enjoyable to hear the girls sing during their work. It certainly was apparent that the morale was exceedingly high!”149

  Canada’s governor general, His Excellency the Earl of Athlone, and his wife, Her Royal Highness Princess Alice, visited GECO in March 1944. Courtesy of Archives of Ontario.

  Every Fuse You Fill May Save a Life

  Women of GECO were reminded regularly that “plenty of ammo” meant a “savings of precious lives” — a dichotomy to be sure and one against which civilized society grappled.150 Men on the battlefields of the Second World War did not have much choice. Either they killed the enemy, or the enemy killed them. Women at GECO had a different choice. Fill munitions that would ultimately kill, or perhaps die trying.

  How did grandmothers, mothers, and young girls justify building weapons that would destroy human life and property? Two hundred and fifty-six million fuses had the potential to obliterate men in not only face-to-face combat, but also to wipe entire towns from the face of the earth.151 Where did women find the resolve to create the means to kill? Moreover, where did they find the courage to work with high explosives that could potentially explode in their hands, ending their own lives? Each GECOite had his or her own reasons for working with high explosives. Carol LeCappelain spoke of a local regiment stationed in North Bay, Ontario, her hometown. Many men from that regiment — her friends and neighbours — were overseas fighting and she felt compelled to help, even if that meant taking lives to save lives.152 Carol was diligent in her inspection duties at GECO. “I didn’t want any soldiers killed due to faulty ammo,” she said, and she hoped that “maybe we had done some good for the men.”153

  “I had
too much time on my hands with my men away,” GECOite Peggy MacKay said when explaining why she worked at GECO.154 “I felt too that it would help my country.”155 Molly Danniels, while a young woman at GECO, recognized the dangerous nature of the work she did — handling detonators the size of her pinky fingernail. “If you punctured one, it blew up,” she said.156 In hindsight she couldn’t do it today.157

  Hartley French explained his stint at GECO this way: “There was a war on and you were more concerned about your own future than what GECO was about.”158 He added, “There was definitely no certainty that we would win.”159 Toronto hadn’t recovered from the Depression and people were scrambling to find work. Hartley was barely out of his teenage years and his focus was on seeking employment while pursuing an education. He was concerned about what would happen to him after he finished school.

  Perhaps the best motivation for GECOites to build instruments of death and destruction was the letters from husbands and sons fighting overseas. The following letter arrived at the home of a GECO worker from her twenty-year-old son who was at sea and had been torpedoed. He had been bombed in the London Blitz as well while on leave.

  … Mum, I am nearly bursting with pride at the thought of the work you are doing; it makes this job seem child’s play by comparison. I hear so much both from letters from Canada and fellows I meet over here who have heard about you in their letters from home. If the Empire would follow your lead this war would not last long. This may sound like a line but words are useless to express my thanks that I am your son … you have given us something to fight for that other people haven’t got, (not to mention the wherewithal to fight).”160